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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



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SUNDAY-HOUR SERIES. Y 



Agatha Lee’s Inheritance. 


BY 

Mrs. M. R. HIGHAM, 

AUTHOR OF “ CLOVERLY,” “ THE OTHER HOUSE. ” ETC. 



Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 

900 Broadway, Cor. 20tli St., 

NEW YORK. 


Price, 30 Cents. 


SUNDAY-HOUR SERIES. 


24M0. paper covers. 


GENTLEMAN JIM. By Mrs. E. Prentiss. 25 cts. 

AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. By 

Mrs. M. R. Higham, - - - 30 cts. 

THE SECRET DRAWER. - - - 25 cts. 

UNDER GRAY WALLS. By Mrs. Sarah 

Doudney, 25 cts. 

[OTHERS IN PREPARATION.] 


ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST., NEW YORK. 
Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of the price. 


AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. 


B V 


Mrs. M. R. HIGHAM, 

M 

AUTHOR OF “ CLOVERLY,” “ THE OTHER HOUSE,” ETC. 



NEW YORK: 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY 
900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th STREET. 






By Mrs. M. R. High am. 


Cloverly. A Story, izmo. Cloth, $1.25; 

i6mo. Paper, 50 cts. 

A bright, wholesome story of family life in the 
country. Bubbling over with sparkling conver- 
sations and clever, witty sayings. — Publishers' 
Weekly. 

Anything purer or more wholesome than the 
pictures it gives of home-life is scarcely to be 
found in the entire range of our English litera- 
ture . — Christian Intelligencer. 

The Other House. i2mo. Cloth, §i.oo. 

Bright and readable. — Transcript (Boston) . 


PUBLISHED BY 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 
900 Broad way , Cor. 20 th St . , New York. 
Sent post-paid on receipt of price. 


COPYRIGHT, 1878, BY 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 




rvv . i j. • / m 


AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. 


CHAPTER I. 

“ Agatha ! Agatha ! ” 

I stopped to listen, just holding the door in my 
hand, but with no thought of obediently answer- 
ing the summons. 

“ Agatha ! Agatha ! ” 

It was Aunt Martha’s voice plainly. I closed the 
door very softly, and once out on the lawn sped 
away fast as possible to a little nook among the 
trees, under a high bank, dark, thick and cool, 
with shadows and. swaying, singing branches. 
This was the spot above all others that I loved 
to call “ home.” There was nothing in or out of 
the house I cared for. We lived a little way from 
the great, noisy city, whose roar and turmoil 
surged around, but never quite reached us. The 

( 7 ) 


8 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


house was beautiful, quiet, and orderly; far too 
orderly to suit me. I would have given worlds to 
but romp around it as I pleased, and verily believe 
I could have smashed my long-suffering aunt’s one 
solitary mirror, and her slender display of bijou- 
terie as 'well, for the mere pleasure of forcing 
things out of their unnatural calm. The carpet 
seemed altogether too fine for my rough feet to 
tread upon, and the painful air of propriety about 
the whole place absolutely stifled me. Only when 
I was out under the trees, in my favorite hiding- 
place, with not even the sun to reach me — alone 
— while I fancied I was thinking — instead of which 
I was wantonly idling — only here did I call it 
“ Home.” So I lay down upon the short grass, 
soft and smooth as velvet to the touch, and rest- 
ing my head upon the trunk of an old gnarled 
tree, I shut my eyes and sailed away into dream- 
land, while the drowsy wind just murmured a lul- 
laby, soft and tender enough to wrap me into the 
most delicious rest. I could not frame my 
thoughts. I only knew I was very happy when I 
was out there alone, and very much cast down 
when I was in the house with Aunt Martha, and I 
longed with an eagerness I hardly dared acknowl- 
edge to myself, for the time to come when I could 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


9 


put the present life away and be my own mistress. 
I could hardly wait for the years to come and go 
and make me in their flight a woman. One castle 
I was forever building, and Phil, the rude fellow, 
was forever demolishing. A far-away, shadowy 
dream it was to me, but sometimes my fancy built 
it very clearly. Somebody was going to die and 
leave me a home. “ If somebody were only kind, 
they would die now,” I said poutingly to Phil one 
day. 

“ Oh, Aggie, for shame ! ” Phil made answer, 
opening his round, brown eyes, and giving me 
such a reproving glance, for he wouldn’t have 
spoken a harsh word to me for the world — dear 
boy ! 

Now Phil was my playmate, my counselor, my 
friend above all friends ; Phil was my cousin, and 
we were both orphans and wards of Aunt Martha’s. 
She was never unkind to us. She was always the 
same unvarying, monotonous, placid Aunt Martha. 
Duty and propriety divided her so completely that 
there was nothing at all of her beyond those two 
principles. She was rigid in her orthodoxy, and 
she was a “ model of deportment.” And Phil and 
I didn’t care and didn’t know anything about 
either. Phil was older than I. I was ten, he 


10 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


twelve, but I knew far more than he, I thought, so 
I ordered him about as I pleased, and led him 
something of a dog’s life, capriciously caring for 
him one instant, and casting him off the next. 
That very day had he wickedly put out my dollie’s 
eyes, and then gone off to the city, riding on his 
little shag pony, as placidly as if he had never per- 
petrated such cruelty. “ I would never speak to 
Phil again ! ” I said bitterly, and not caring to see 
any one, least of all Aunt Martha. I would not 
listen to her call, but came out in the old place to 
dream. I forgot all about dollie’s eyes when I 
had settled myself in my favorite nook. It was so 
quiet and solemn, with the sun shining all around 
so brightly, so still, so clear, and not a ray of light 
to pierce through and reach me. And the 
birds twittering about from limb to limb, the bees 
humming, the leaves softly stirring, and the sky 
so blue and without a cloud overhead. Yes, it 
was soothing and lovely to even my child heart, 
and I shut my eyes and dreamed my dream and I 
built up my castle very high and fair that day, and 
forgot all about Phil’s misconduct, and planned a 
great many charming impossibilities for us both, 
when, as he used often to say, £C our ship comes 
from over the sea.” Was it really a ship, and 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. H 


would it ever spread white sails, and come home 
laden to me ? Phil said it would, but Phil said a 
vast deal of nonsense, and was never to be de- 
pended upon, that I knew. 

Somebody came walking soberly down the gar- 
den walk, crossing the lawn and coming toward me. 
Somebody was Jane, my aunt’s maid, and “some- 
body ” always knew where to find me. I shut my 
eyes, feigning sleep. I didn’t like Jane very much 
more than I did Aunt Martha. She was Aunt 
Martha’s echo, shadow, counterpart, only on an 
humbler scale. She was propriety itself, and she 
had considered me, that I well knew, a very wicked 
child. I lay there peering at her between my half- 
closed eyes, breathing very heavily, in utter uncon- 
sciousness that she detected the fraud instantly. 

“ Miss,” she said severely, putting aside the 
branches, “you are wanted in the house directly.” 

I breathed quite regularly, trying to keep my 
eyelids from trembling. 

“ Wicked, deceitful child,” she went on, “ to try 
me in this way, and put your poor, dear aunt all 
of a tremble on your account. She has been call- 
ing you everywhere, and Dr. Milnor has been with 
her above an hour, waiting to see you. Wake up, 
you wicked child ! ” 


12 


AG A THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


“ Dr. Milnor ? ” and I jumped up instantly. 
“ Why didn’t you tell me at once, Jane ? ” 

And I ran past her, never heeding her prayers 
that I would stop and put on a clean pinafore and 
smooth my disordered hair and wash my soiled 
face and hands. Dr. Milnor very seldom came to 
the cottage. He was an old man and quite feeble 
I knew. Long ago he had given up his church 
and duties to a younger and not nearly (I thought) 
as pleasant a man. 

But he clung to his people yet, and the dear, 
old hills of home, and his only wish was to die 
among those who for so many years had been like 
his children to him. Once, by my mother’s sick- 
bed, yes, by her death-bed, I, a fearful wondering 
child, had received the old man’s benediction that 
had seemed to enter into my heart, child though I 
was, and in a manner sanctified all my future life 
to me. Yet I knew nothing of my own great 
needs, or the longing wants of an unregenerate 
soul. I only knew that I was once blessed — 
blessed solemnly and tenderly in the name of the 
great All Father and the dear Son, who once took 
such little, ignorant children in His arms, suffer- 
ing them to come unto Him. My heart opened 
and took in the blessing I think I was never very 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


13 


bad without the touch of the old man’s hand com- 
ing back to me suddenly. Sometimes I felt it as a 
reproach — sometimes a warning — always a re- 
straint. Sometimes I checked the hasty words, 
feeling almost as if back again in the dim room 
with the yearning white face of my mother, looking 
into mine as she gave up her only child to God. 
This was the way I remembered and loved Dr. 
Milnor. What did I care for soiled frock or 
hands ? I left Jane far, very far, behind me, and 
bursting open the little parlor door, and never 
once noticing Aunt Martha’s shocked face or warn- 
ing finger, I threw myself into his arms and held 
up my mouth for him to kiss. Such a mouth ! 
There were traces of jelly, surreptitiously taken 
from the store-room in an auspicious moment, and 
there were still more recent traces of dirt and 
tears lingering there, for had not one of my hapless 
children lost her eyesight that day, and had I not 
lifted up my voice and wept ? But I forgot it all, 
and the good, kind Doctor never thought of it 
either as he stooped to take the little, dirty face in 
his two hands and lifting it up, kissed forehead 
and lips, saying very tenderly, “ God love the 
child and keep her always.” I clung to him de- 
lightedly, though my aunt tried vainly by little 


14 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


Freemasonry signs, well understood by me, to be- 
guile me into going to the nursery and Jane, for a 
change of attire. But no, obstinacy was an in- 
herent part of my nature. By Dr. Milnor’s side 
I dropped, feeling the kind hands once more upon 
my head, and going back instantly in thought to 
the dim room, by my mother’s bedside. I did not 
care to talk. The sight of the placid face with 
the silver hair falling around it, and the touch of 
the gentle hand was only another blessing to me. 
I listened as he talked to Aunt Martha of the 
great good that I might yet do in the world — of 
the proper training I should require — of the great 
future so wrapped in cloud, but which was surely 
waiting for me. Why for me ? Why should he 
seem so earnest and grave, and why, when he 
looked down at me, were the kincl blue eyes dim 
with tears ? I listened in wonder, never saying a 
word, but nestling closer to his side and feeling a 
sense of vague alarm. 

Aunt Martha spoke to me first. 

“Agatha,” she said, measuring every word after 
her usual, composed, prim fashion, “ Dr. Milnor 
is the bearer of very important news to you. Mr. 
Hilton is dead.” 

A long pause. I had not the faintest idea who 


A GA TH A L EE " 5 INHERI TA NCE. 1 5 

Mr. Hilton was, and breathed a great sigh of re- 
lief. Very clearly it was neither Phil nor the dogs 
nor one of my long array of waxen children who 
had come to grief. So I said very briskly, and 
with much' relish, “Yes, Aunt Martha, I don’t 
know Mr. Hilton, so I don’t care, you know.” 

“ But you must care,” she said. “ It is a great 
deal to you ; Mr. Hilton was very rich. He had 
no one to leave his money to.” 

“ But a little child,” interrupted Dr. Milnor 
softly, “ who God grant may live to His honor and 
glory, and make good use of the wealth He has 
given her. Will she try ? ” stooping down to kiss 
my forehead again. “Will she remember it is God 
who has given her this goodly heritage? Will she 
always ask Him to help her spend it wisely and in 
His service ? ” 

I was too young to realize all the enormous 
benefits and advantages thus suddenly thrown up- 
on me. I only knew my castle stood out firm and 
clear as I had built it that day. “ You shall have 
beautiful new eyes, dollie, my love,” I whispered 
to the mutilated image closely wrapped in my 
arms, as I lay upon my little, white bed that night. 
“ You shall have beautiful new eyes every day in 
the year if you like, my pet. We will not care for 


16 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


Phil, he is so cruel and bad a boy. We will live 
for ourselves hereafter, you and I — Jane,” I said, 
calling her to me, “ is it a very fine thing to be 
rich ? ” 

“ Very fine, Miss,” with a little more softness in 
her tone than she usually employed in addressing 
me. 

“ Will I ride in a carriage and have new dollies 
whenever I please, and ever and ever so much 
candy when I like to buy it ? ” 

“ You will, Miss, but wouldn’t it be better to say 
your prayers and go to sleep just now ? You 
haven’t thanked God for His goodness to you to- 
day.” 

“ But I have thanked Mr. Hilton,” I said practi- 
cally, “ and that is far better, I think, Jane,” not 
noticing her shocked look, “ and now if you please 
you may put the light out, and dollie and I will go 
to sleep.” 

Dear Dr. Milnor ! How little I thought of his 
solemn words — how meager the thanks my child 
heart gave to the great Giver of all this bounty. 
Very clearly it was Mr. Hilton who had done it 
all, and my gratitude went to him. An inherit- 
ance ! God alone knew if it would bring me 
good or ill ; but my careless visions were darkened 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 17 

by no shadows that night. An inheritance ! I 
clasped dollie closer in my arms as I fell asleep, 
whispering to her comforting words, and promis- 
ing her eyes of every color she desired — beautiful 
eyes every day in the year if she liked. 

This is the way the castle I had builded shaped 
itself solidly in the future for me. This is the 
way the Esperanza spread her white sails and came 
floating over the waves to little Agatha Lee — child 
— orphan — but after that night — mistress of Hilton 
Lee. 


2 


CHAPTER II. 


A long, rocky line of coast — a strip of smooth, 
shining sand at its base, over which, far as the 
eye could reach, the boiling surf crept and curled. 
A great arch of blue sky overhead, and a great 
arch of blue water below ; and spreading sails like 
white-winged birds, forever coming and going — 
ah ! what a spot for dreams ! To run to the rocky 
headland — to find a place where I might descend, 
from point to point, and reach the sands below — 
to sit in the warm sunlight and feel the fresh air 
upon my cheek, and wonder how far the winds 
and waves had come that day — to hear the dirge- 
like burden of the waters — the great ocean chant 
— the weird, wonderful whisperings that crept up to 
me from the sea, and which charmed me into list- 
ening and dreaming away part of that first sum- 
mer down on the sands at Hilton Lee. Many and 
many a day alone — for Phil only stayed through the 
first four weeks of his vacation, and then went 
• (iS) 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 19 

away with some school chum to finish the remain- 
der. The remembrance of those days, lonely for 
a child — and never entirely lonely either, because 
of the whispering voices around me, so dream- 
like, misty, and far away — yet in a manner stay by 
me still. Every wave, as it broke, had a voice for 
my ear. Sometimes a wail, a longing, a regret — 
sometimes a glad whispering of the shores it had 
washed — of the strange, wild countries it had seen ; 
of the famous cities, frowning towers, and ruined 
castles it hurried past; or, leaping fearfully and 
high, it spoke of sudden storm and wreck, and 
despair and death. And then I *fled away, fright- 
ened and trembling, trying to deafen my ears to 
the long, sullen booming of the angry breakers as 
they moaned and tossed upon the bar. 

The house was far away, back from the rocky 
headland, sheltered from the storm and wind, 
bosomed in by tall, old trees. A long sloping 
lawn led to the road. A high stone wall divided 
it from our neighbors, although, truth to tell, we 
knew nothing of them, or indeed if there were 
people living there at all. We had only come 
down to the Lee — Aunt Martha, Jane, Phil, and I — 
for the summer months, and to see, as my good 
aunt prudently suggested, “ into the state of affairs.” 


20 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


Jane found out- for us, in the surreptitious way of 
servants generally, that our nearest neighbors were 
the Endicotts — beyond that we knew nothing — 
we saw no one. Phil stayed with us his allotted 
four weeks, and together we explored every part 
of the farm and shore, and knew it all by heart. 

I was three years older than when I received 
my great, new gift, through the hands of Dr. 
Milnor. I had given my dollie the beautiful new 
eyes for which I had been sighing, and then weary- 
ing of the multitude of cares these waxen children 
brought with them, I had put them aside and 
taken up other longings and pursuits. And Dr. 
Milnor had gone peacefully to rest, leaving a great 
void in my life — how great I had not begun to 
realize until he had gone away from me forever. 
I was such a child when my mother died, and the 
dear old Doctor was the only link left between us, 
between me and heaven — between me and the great 
hereafter, which came so solemnly before me when 
I felt no longer the touch of the hand which had 
once conveyed blessings with it. 

Phil no longer practiced cruelties on my chil- 
dren or teased and bullied me. I was thirteen 
years old, and mistress of Hilton Lee ! In that 
month he was with us we had not a single quarrel 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


21 


or difference of any kind. From morning until 
night we wandered about together; oftenest out 
on the sands, his arm about me as we walked up 
and down, planning great things for the future, 
and sending out our tiny fleets of childish long- 
ings — to sail serenely into port some day, or to 
wreck as many a noble ship has been wrecked 
— who could tell ? 

The day Phil left us I felt my loneliness more 
than ever before in my life. I slipped from the 
house and Aunt Martha, nodding complacently 
over her embroidery in an easy-chair, and wan- 
dered off alone by myself. It was a relief to me 
to be out of the house and feel the fresh breeze 
blowing around me, as I took our old path to the 
beach. I clambered over the rocks until I reached 
the sands below, where Phil and I had wandered 
every day, and finding out the big flat rock where 
we had sat and talked in the moonlight the night 
before, I seated myself upon it and looked around. 
A boat lay on the sands, drawn up high out of 
reach of the creeping waves, but nobody was in 
sight ; lonely, still, and white, the beach lay like a 
long shining path of silver, and the ocean, rocking 
placidly, lulled me into profoundest dreams. It 
was warm July weather, and one of the loveliest 


22 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

days of that sweet midsummer time. But I could 
not thoroughly enjoy this loveliness just then. 
There was enough of loneliness and yearning want 
in my heart to make even the sun shine less 
brightly for a season. The tide was coming in, 
but the waters were quite glassy and smooth be- 
yond the bar, and a golden gossamer haze hung 
over sea and sky, melting it all in one great illimit- 
able blue. On the smooth sands the white surf 
seethed and gurgled, creeping up nearer and 
nearer my resting-place, until it seemed to me the 
water was trying to reach my feet. I threw off my 
slippers and put my foot down to meet the coming 
wave. I loved to feel the soft, cool water rippling 
around me. But I was lonely. The day before, 
Phil and I had run up and down the beach, frolick- 
ing and dashing in the spray, and with never a 
thought of anything but pleasure. Now I was 
alone. It would be six long months before I 
should see my old playfellow again, and another 
year, probably, before we should “ come unto these 
yellow sands.” A year. A great deal could be- 
fall me of good or ill in that time. Was I always 
to be alone, this way ? My eyes wandered over 
the waters— a vast, misty, wonderful circle — and 
only this little point of land on which I stood 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


23 


seemed stable and real. Over beyond all this blue 
I knew lay great, busy worlds — above me, wheel- 
ing into space, still other worlds were hovering. 
I felt like an atom — a grain of sand on the shore 
of this far-reaching sea. f “ It is like eternity,” I 
said to myself, my eyes filling. “ It is like eternity 
to stand here alone and think of what lies beyond 
and around me. And I am alone in it all — I shall 
be alone all my life, as now.” And my eyes, brim- 
ming and running over, blotted out sea and sky 
with fast-falling tears. I thought it all over once 
more — the life I had planned for Agatha Lee — the 
ships I had freighted and sent out sailing over the 
seas — the hopes, the fears, the longings — but they 
wpre all of this world. Nothing did the waves 
ever whisper to me of the life beyond this — or if 
it whispered, I did not listen. It was all of life 
here that I dreamed, not the unending life here- 
after. When Phil had done with school and col- 
lege and gone out into the world, a man — when 
Aunt Martha should grow old and feeble, and 
finally die, like Dr. Milnor, who, who on the great, 
broad earth, would care for me ? — what good would 
my inheritance do me if I were alone ; alone in 
the future as now ? It was a great thought for a 
child to grapple. It was a lonely song the se£ was 


24 


AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. 


singing. I covered my face with my hands and 
burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying. When once : 
fairly roused I could not stay the torrent of tears. 
It seemed to me for a moment that I forgot my 
youth and looked my life resolutely in the face, J 
feeling how like, how very like it was, to one of 
those atoms of shifting sand under my feet. I 
slipped from my seat, and throwing both arms 
around the damp rock, I leaned my head down 
upon it and sobbed aloud. There was no one near 
to inquire into my grief, or to soothe it either, and 
I indulged in the unrestrained luxury with never ' 
a thought of any one hearing or heeding me. How 
long I lay there I could not tell. I felt quite worn 
out and exhausted and was only sobbing softly to 
myself when I was roused by hearing a voice, ap- 
parently close by my side. The low, quiet tones \ 
seemed to come up to me out of the sea and blend- ' 
ing singularly with the music of the waves, scarcely 
startled me, it seemed so impossible it should be I 
any living person. Nevertheless, the voice said | 
very plainly, “ My little maiden, what is the mat- 
ter ? ” And I sprang to my feet, brushing away 
the tears, and instantly aware the voice was no 
trick of my fancy, or song of the sea. A tall, - 
beardless youth stood before me, looking down j 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 25 


with surprise, and kindly scrutiny as well, in his 
blue eyes. The voice and the face were instantly 
reassuring, but I shrank instinctively from the 
thought of a stranger seeing me thus and in tears. 

“ My little maiden,” the voice was saying, “ sit- 
ting like Dorothea by the water’s side and uttering 
saddest plaints — do not cry any more — let me turn 
comforter and wipe all these tears away.” 

I said nothing. I could not be frightened when 
I looked into the blue eyes and heard the kindly 
voice, but I could utter no word, and only covered 
my face with my hands. Then he sat down on 
the rock and tried to take them away and look 
into my eyes, but I hung my head so that he could 
not see them at all. 

“Don’t cry any more,” he whispered softly. 
“ You are too much of a child to be troubled with 
any grief as yet deeper than the loss of a toy. I 
never could abide tears. Tell me — what can I 
say to comfort you ? Speak, Dorothea ! ” 

I had never in all my life heard of “ Miguel 
De Cervantes Saavedra,” and as I sprang to my 
feet, I explained my name was Agatha Lee, and 
not Dorothea , at all. 

“ Oh ! then,” said the stranger, lifting his eye- 
brows with an air of mock surprise, “but I am 


26 - AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

more than ever lost in amazement. I looked 
around the rock for Sancho, and the knight and 
priest, and came down hither to offer to mount you 
on the famous mule and give you ‘ bon voyage * 
toward your kingdom of Micomacon.” 

Clearly a crazy man ! And yet the tone was 
full of jesting laughter, and the eyes kindly and 
serene- in spite . of a sparkle of mischief resting 
there ; but clearly he was crazy — and I alone with 
him on the beach; only a moment before, his 
hands in mine — and Aunt Martha, dozing 
placidly over her tapestries in the little summer 
parlor, with no thought of where or with whom I 
was tarrying ! I gave one bound and sprang from 
his side and in an instant was clambering up the 
rocks. He could not have followed me if he had 
wished, for fear added wings to my speed, and I 
knew the exact spot to place every footstep. I 
made no pause to look back until I gained the flat 
ledge of rock hanging over the sands — the top of 
the terrace, beyond which lay the smooth grass 
and meadows of home. Then I looked back and 
saw I was not pursued. My unknown friend had 
reached the little boat and was pushing away. But 
as he saw me he rose in the stern and took off his 
hat, waving it gracefully. The wind tossed his 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


27 


yellow hair about his face — the sunlight glittered 
upon it in light and shade — and then, rising and 
falling with the slow, majestic sweep of each in- 
coming wave, the little boat shot through the foam 
and out to sea. I dropped upon the grass, watch- 
ing the tiny bark with eager eyes. How grace- 
fully it rose and fell ! How strong the arm which 
i steered it clear through the smooth blue, and then, 
i without any apparent effort, mounted the crest of 
: the wave, toppling down over it — shooting over 
and through it and on to another. “ He was used 
to the sea,” I said to myself. None but the fisher- 
men about here, on the beach, whom I had 
watched going out day by day with their nets and 
lines, could manage a boat like that. Who was 
he? and where had he come from? — “ out of the 
depths,” as he had appeared ? I watched the 
I boat until it became only a black speck — a point. 
I saw it rounding to and nearing a little yacht 
which lay with furled sails, rocking idly upon the 
curling sea. And then, as 1 still sat watching for 
the speck which I had lost, and which apparently 
the sea had swallowed up, I saw the canvas flutter, 
then, spreading its wings like a white sea-gull, it dis- 
appeared in the mists of sea and sky. He had van- 
ished as suddenly and mysteriously as he had come. 


CHAPTER III. 


“ My dear Agatha,” said Aunt Martha, sleepily, 
as I came in the house an hour afterward, “ where 
have you been all this long time ? I have finished 
the bud I was doing, and had, I am positively cer- 
tain, an undue amount of sleep. I woke twice and 
asked Jane for you, but she knew no better than I 
where to go.” 

“ I have been on the beach, aunt,” I said quietly, 
taking a stool at her feet. 

“ And not bathing ? ” she leaned forward and 
touched my dress, which was quite dry. “ That 
is right. We know nothing of the tides, and un- 
less Phil or some proper person were with you, it 
would be extremely dangerous. I think I don’t 
quite approve of your wandering off so much alone 
by yourself. I really wish I were able to go with 
you, sometimes, but the sea air has a most surpris- 
ing effect upon me. It is impossible to keep this 
drowsiness away. But I can soon go with you, I 
hope.” 

(281 


A GA TH A L EE ’ ^ IN HER I TA NCE. 


29 


“ By no means,” I said quickly, resolving not 
to tell her of my rencontre that day. “ The 
beach is perfectly quiet and safe, and, indeed, you 
would be tired out if you were to take one of my 
long tramps.” 

Aunt Martha loved her ease. She settled her- 
self back again upon her cushions placidly. “ I 
think you had better take one of the dogs, then. 
I am sure it is hardly right to wander away so. I 
feel very anxious sometimes,” sorting out the right 
shade of red, with no sign of care on her smooth 
brow, and proceeding to the study of the rose 
again. 

I suppose this placidity of Aunt Martha’s was 
the very thing which annoyed me more than all 
else she ever did. It acted upon me as an irritant, 
I was such a positive piece of unrest myself, and 
everything she said or did was always so painfully 
precise and proper. I wondered sometimes if 
anything on earth could move her out of that per- 
petual calm. She was a good woman ; everybody 
said so, and surely everybody could not be mis- 
taken ; but to me religion never looked particu- 
larly interesting when contemplated from Aunt 
Martha’s stand-point. She was quite faultless in 
her orthodoxy, and rigidly systematic in her teach- 


30 


AG A THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


ings. Every morning and evening she gathered 
her family together for prayers, and Sundays spent 
all her spare time in instructing Phil and me. It 
was a dreadful day to us, I am free to confess. All 
through the week the shadow of the Catechism 
and sundry unlearned Psalms hung like a pall be- 
fore my mental vision. Phil used to declare the 
sword of Damocles was nothing to it. For me, I 
did not dare indulge in comparison — it was the 
crowning point of all my woes to “ keep Sunday.” 
On that day the old mother dollie and all her chil- 
dren, an innumerable host, were laid away on a 
shelf, and never by any mischance did I get a look 
at them, or, as I grew older, at any book either, 
unless its contents had been previously examined 
and approved. I had learned verse after verse, 
chapter after chapter in the Bible ; I knew it by 
heart, I thought, and I just hated it all. I said I 
was like “ Topsey ” — meant to be “ awful wicked ” 
— and so let it go. Very clearly Aunt Martha, 
like Miss Ophelia, was destined to have a sorry 
time of it. 

For the rest of that day, however, I settled 
down quietly by her side, not caring to wander 
off again alone, my heart beating tumultuously 
every time I thought of my strange meeting with 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 31 

the crazy man on the beach. I knew aunt would 
never let me go there alone if I told her, and I 
had resolved upon taking one of the dogs with 
me, and going to the terrace the very next day 
to see if the strange little craft and the still 
stranger sailor were in sight ; but though I trav- 
ersed the beach for many a day after that, and 
swept the sea for a glimpse of the tiny yacht, my 
search was never rewarded by an answering sail. 

The weather began to be oppressively warm. I 
kept away from the shore all day, when the sun 
stood high in the heavens and beat down upon the 
white, sands until it seemed like molten silver to 
my feet. I only went there in the early morning 
or toward nightfall ; the rest of the time I spent 
in searching out the coolest spot in the wood, or 
under the tall old trees out on the lawn. Some- 
times, clambering over the stone walls, I ventured 
into our neighbor’s domain. It was too pretty a 
place to remain shut up this way these beautiful 
summer days, I thought, walking once up to and 
around the house, which was old-fashioned,, but 
after all a stately dwelling for these parts. It had 
a high, pointed roof and clustering chimneys, and 
on one side a tower with a small wing attached, 
and a mansard roof, showing modern taste had 


32 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

been at work and spoiled the whole thing, as is 
most frequently the case. There was not a sign 
of life visible anywhere. The windows were all 
closed, the lawn looked neglected with a thick 
rank undergrowth of grass, and everything spoke 
of a long absence from the place. “ I wish they 
were here,” I thought. “ If there were any chil- 
dren in the family, what a delight it would be — 
nothing but a stone wall to clamber over, and oh ! 
what joy to have a playfellow ! ” 

“ Who are these Endicotts, aunt ? ” I asked one 
day after an unusually long survey of the deserted 
dwelling. “ And are they never coming to their 
home again ? Do you know them, and are there 
any little girls ? ” 

Aunt knew nothing. I might have known it 
before I asked her; but Jane would know, and to 
Jane did I go. Jane always knew everything; of 
course she could tell me their whole history. 
“ Mrs. Endicott was a widow — an old lady, and an 
invalid, abroad for her health, she believed.” 

“ And no little girls, Jane ? ” I interrupted. 

“ None, Miss; but she has a son — ” 

“ Oh ! I don’t care for a boy,” I said poutingly. 
“She may stay where she is, or go to Jerusalem, 
and he with her — the house is just as well shut up.” 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


33 


But I felt a very great deal of freedom after 
that to wander about in the grounds and idle 
away much of my time in the dilapidated sum- 
mer-house, dark and cool, with vines running over 
it in the wildest luxuriance — a nice place to run 
away and read whatever I could lay my hand up- 
on. By and by the summer-house began to be 
quite a piece of my own property, possession be- 
ing, in my eyes then, even much more than nine 
points of the law. 

One day, lying in my favorite nook, quite hid- 
den from observation, I became conscious of an 
unusual noise in the direction of the house; a 
hammering and pounding and a sound as of open- 
ing and shutting doors. I started up, ran out on 
the walk, and saw, to my great surprise, the shut- 
ters of the mansion were all unclosed, the long 
windows open, and a bustle as of people working 
within. Then a woman came to the window, and 
a great beating of pillows and blankets began, 
while two or three workmen with carpenter’s tools 
were below stairs hammering and carrying in 
boards. I stood and watched them a long time. 
Surely the family must be coming home, I thought, 
as I walked away, wondering how I could ever 
manage to do without the summer-house, and still 


34 A GA THA LEE'S INHERIT A NCE. 

wishing there were some little girls to share it with 
me. When I reached the boundary line of home, 
the stone wall, I climbed up on it and sat down, 
with the greatest interest to watch the movements 
of the men. Presently some one came out to cut 
the grass. He looked up, when he saw me, with 
a pleasant smile, and when he came near enough 
to warrant conversation, I ventured to ask if the 
family were coming home. “ He believed they 
were,” he made answer. “ Mr. Paul had taken a 
run down and ordered a general ‘fixing up’ of 
matters. It was high time they was furbished up 
a little, everything was going to rack and ruin.” 

It was very pleasant watching the man as he 
walked rapidly forward, swinging his long scythe, 
and filling the air with the fragrant smell of newly 
cut grass and clover-blossoms. I thought I could 
do it quite as well as he. It seemed so easy, just to 
fling that sharp steel blade* around him so lightly. 
I liked to watch him and hear the sweep of the 
scythe and the fall of the heavy grass. It was 
vastly more interesting than even the “ Pilgrim’s 
Progress,” which I had been reading all that morn- 
ing. I laid the book on the wall, and leaning my 
chin on my hands, waited until the man should 
finish his long row and then come back to me 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


35 


again. Then he would stop for a rest, and I would 
have some question to ask, and so as the day and 
the mowing were nearly completed, I found out 
from my garrulous friend that he lived down in the 
village — had a wife and two little children — -was 
“ mighty glad the Endicotts were coming home, 
and chances again of many a day’s work for them ” 
— that the family had always been so good and 
kind to him, and Mr. Paul a very saint upon earth, 
if one could credit Milesian extravagance. Pres- 
ently I began to be glad he was coming too — at 
any rate it would be a change, and child though I 
was, this wonderful Mr. Paul might take some 
notice of me. I had no very clear idea who he was 
— I fancied he must be the owner of the place, from 
all the man said. When he took up his scythe 
and went over to the side of the lawn, touching 
his ragged hat to me, I jumped down and ran in 
to tell Aunt Martha the news. The house was 
quite full of purple twilight, and as I ran stumbling 
into the parlor, after my usual headlong fashion, 
I at first could see nothing. But I thought the 
room empty until I came up to the window, and I 
started back in surprise as a tall, dark figure, half 
hidden by the curtain, rose as I entered, coming 
toward me with, “ I beg your pardon. I have 


36 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


been waiting some time for Miss Lee — will she 
soon be at home ? ” 

“Aunt Martha?” I interrogated with all the 
gaucherie of childhood, and then looking up, even 
in the dusky light, struck by instant recognition, I 
saw before me my crazy sailor friend. He was 
standing before me with one hand extended, evi- 
dently remembering me, and bent upon meeting 
me as an old acquaintance. I hardly knew what to 
do. I blushed, tried to say something, failed utter- 
ly, and finally placed very reluctantly the tips of my 
fingers in his extended palm, and managed to stam- 
mer out again interrogatively, “ Aunt Martha ? ” 

“ I should be glad to have the honor of her ac- 
quaintance,” he made answer in a low, musical 
voice, but just as full of teasing jest as when I 
heard it that day on the beach ; “ but first will you 
allow me to make yours ? and formally to introduce 
myself as your nearest neighbor, Paul Endicott, 
and then to ask your pardon for frightening you 
as I did a few weeks ago ? ” 

Then he had called to see me, after all, and not 
Aunt Martha ! Miss Lee ! I really didn’t know 
just what to say.. He still retained my hand in his, 
standing before me, “ waiting to be forgiven,” he 
said. What should I do ? 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


37 


“ I was very rude," he went, “ but I am sure you 
will pardon me and accept me as a friend and 
neighbor in the future — on good behavior, you 
know.” 

“ It was very silly of me,” I said, finding my 
voice at last, which sounded to me very thick and 
husky, as if I had grappled it somewhere in the re- 
gion of my boots and dragged it up by main force. 
“ Pray say no more about it. I ought to have 
known better, but I thought — I was afraid,” and 
between awkwardness and embarrassment down 
went my voice again like a plummet. 

“You were never afraid of me 2 Am I so terri- 
ble a personage, then ? ” giving the yellow locks 
a little toss. 

“ I thought you were crazy,” I confessed with 
my usual bluntness. This time he laughed. A 
pleasant laugh he had — low and musical, like his 
voice. 

“ Well, am I forgiven ? Yes ? Then won’t you 
ask me to take a seat, or must I make my best 
bow and depart ? ” 

“I would be very glad if you would stay,” I 
said, feeling that a babe in arms might do greater 
credit to Aunt Martha and her rules of deportment 
than I, and ready to cry with vexation that she 


38 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


did not come. He took my hand and led me 
back to the open window, and gave me a chair by 
his side. 

“ I mean we shall be very good friends,” he said 
after a little time. “ I will never call you Dorothea 
any more.” 

It is hardly necessary to say I was in a tremor 
from head to foot at having to entertain for the first 
time in myjife so fine a young gentlemen as Mr. 
Paul Endicott. Had he met me on the beach, or 
in the woods, or even had he claimed acquaintance 
with me as I sat perched on the stone wall only 
an hour or two before, I could have managed the 
introduction and conversation tolerably well. But 
to be treated like a lady — to be receiving a visit 
just like a grown-up person in the parlor, was al- 
most too much for the mistress of Hilton Lee. 

And while he was making conversation with the 
evident intent of humanely putting me at my ease, 
I was lost in the thought that my face and hands 
would look a deal better if they were suffered to 
touch water and a crash towel, and my hair to be 
beguiled out of the “ Traddles surprise,” by a vig- 
orous application of comb and brush. And my 
thoughts going this way, my eyes very naturally 
were roaming over my companion. I wondered 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 39 

if he were laughing at me, and though my cheeks 
burned at the thought, I inwardly cried out he 
was the most elegant youth mine eyes had ever be- 
held. I was glad he hadn’t obeyed my behest 
and gone “with his mother to Jerusalem.” I 
hardly spoke, but like the owl, “ kept up a terrible 
thinking,” while Mr. Paul entertained me with bits 
of lively talk, about his boat, and his college 
chums and their boats, and the great fun it would 
be, now they were down on the shore, and the 
company he would have, and the sails they would 
take. 

“ I mean you shall sail in her some day, too,” 
he said, “that is, if you will. She is a beauty.” 

And then I found my voice suddenly, and vent- 
ured to ask her name, and discovered it was the 
Scud, and she was lying in a little cove, about 
two miles below our beach, and “ would I go see 
her some day ? ” And before I knew it, all the 
huskiness vanished from my throat, and we were 
talking quite like old friends when Aunt Martha 
came in from her drive, preceded by Jane bear- 
ing candles. We were laughing as merrily as a 
couple of children, and I had entirely forgotten 
my hair, when I looked behind Jane and saw 
Aunt Martha. A man of forty could not have 


40 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


met her with more graceful ease, I thought, than 
did my new-found friend. I managed to say, 
“ Aunt, this is our neighbor, Mr. Endicott,” and 
then he very pleasantly told of our meeting on 
the sea-shore, which had emboldened him into 
calling, and that, “ as a child he used to have the 
‘ open sesame ’ of Hilton Lee at all hours, and it 
seemed only right to come here the first thing.” 
And then the talk glided off into inquiries of Mr. 
Hilton, his manner of life, etc., etc., for, as Aunt 
Martha confessed, though a relative, we knew but 
little of him. There had been for many years a 
sort of tacit coolness between the houses of Lee 
and Hilton, so irretrievably mixed up and be- 
wildering, that no one on either side had ever 
taken the trouble of disentangling the error and 
confusion. And so it fell about that Phil, being 
a Hilton, lost the inheritance, and I, being a Lee, 
got it. Mr. Paul had many pleasant things, to tell 
us of this munificent relative of mine, whom I had 
never seen or heard of scarcely until a few years 
before. He was a fine old gentleman, he said, with 
a few crotchets, which was but natural for a man 
living so lonely and secluded a life. But he had 
a noble, kind heart, as many a poor family here- 
about would testify, and he lived as he had died, 


AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. 


41 


a devoted Christian. And from that Aunt Martha 
wandered away to the little church which had 
been so richly remembered in Mr. Hilton’s will, 
and we found the Endicotts belonged to the same 
parish — and then, to my infinite surprise, confu- 
sion, and dismay, I heard this young gentleman 
distinctly telling Aunt Martha he himself was 
destined for the Church. I sat quite petrified and 
motionless after this! To be religious at all was 
disagreeable enough to my mind, but to hear this 
jesting, yacht-loving boy, telling Aunt Martha in 
cool blood that he was studying, for the ministry 
was sufficient to astonish me into silence for a 
month at least. I rubbed my eyes and looked 
again, but his face was quite grave now, and he 
was talking as soberly of his mother’s happiness 
in the choice of his pursuit, and of his own clear 
sense of duty in the matter, as he had before of 
his pride in the Scud , and the delight of his 
college companions in the same. What did a min- 
ister want of a yacht, I thought, and how could 
he laugh and jest with me as he had been doing 
the whole evening, and why wasn’t he solemn and 
awful ? I liked him, but I had an innate horror 
of the profession, always saving and excepting 
dear old Mr. Milnor, the memory of whose gentle 


42 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

and happy life seemed always lingering in my 
heart like the presence of the prayer with which 
he had consecrated me, and which I never thor- 
oughly forgot. I shrank within myself when I 
remembered it then. The daughter of a pure 
saint now resting in the Paradise of God — all her 
life the child of many prayers — and yet carrying 
about with her a heart so rebellious, so full of re- 
pugnance, of positive dislike for all that was good 
and true and holy in the life of a Christian. Why 
could I not be good too ? And then there flashed 
across my mind for a moment the thought that it 
was only those who were truly good who could 
possibly be light-hearted or merry. 

And all this time while I sat there in a shocked 
and perplexed silence, Mr. Paul Endicott was 
going over very gravely and in quite a changed 
tone of voice the doubts and perplexities which 
had beset him before he had taken this all-im- 
portant step. 

“ It has been the dream of my mother’s life,” 
he said, passing his hand over his eyes for a mo- 
ment, and then looking up with a bright smile. 
“ My only doubts have been of my own fitness — 
but even those doubts are sometimes my strongest 
encouragements. I feel then perhaps more keenly 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 43 

than ever how little one can rely on one’s own 
strength. One verse oftener than any other comes 
up to me, and I feel it sometimes my greatest safe- 
guard;” 

He stopped, then said softly, while his eyes had 
a far-away, dreamy look, “ ‘ Let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ Oh! if one 
should fall,” he said, almost under his breath. 
Then he rose up abruptly, holding out his hand to 
Aunt Martha — 

“ I am trespassing upon your time, and forget- 
ting all rules of propriety in this my first visit. 
But it seems almost like home to me in this dear 
old room, and I must confess I had forgotten the 
lateness of the hour.” >He shook hands with us 
both, and would not be tempted into remaining 
longer, though Aunt Martha pressed him to do so. 
“ His mother would be here soon,” he said, “ and 
then he hoped we would kindly visit her, she being 
a great invalid.” 

“ Would he stay at the house to-night ? ” Aunt 
Martha asked. 

“ No, he was going to walk down the beach two 
miles to his yacht. He was going to the city to- 
morrow,” and then calling out good-night, we 
heard his rapid footfall echoing on the hard gravel 


44 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


walk in the stillness of the soft summer night, and 
I dropped back in the window seat, feeling for the 
first time in my life as if I had found a firm, true 
friend — but oh ! why, why must he be a clergy- 
man ? 


CHAPTER IV. 


Now that I knew Mr. Paul Endicott, I felt 
quite privileged to run around as usual without 
fear of another crazy encounter on the sands. 
Also I wandered about on their side of the stone 
wall, even going up to the house to note the im- 
provements going on there, and taking possession 
of the little summer-house again, whenever I 
pleased to do so. I looked every day for his com- 
ing again, with an eager delight I did not attempt 
to hide. Having only Phil and myself to dream 
over, I very naturally wearied of the subject, and 
was glad that this new-comer had widened the 
channel of my thoughts. Aunt Martha too was 
quite profuse in her praise, and declared for so 
young a person she had seldom seen one who had 
interested her more deeply. 

“ My dear Agatha,” she said, “ he will really be 
a great acquisition, and if his mother is the least 
like him, I am sure our life down here will be any- 
thing but lonely.” 


( 45 ) 


46 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

“ Aunt,” I asked one' day, resolving to have 
some of my doubts settled at once, “don’t you 
think — don’t you think he is — ever so little — funny, 
for a clergyman ? ” 

She looked at me in her serene way for a mo- 
ment before replying : “ I think you are funny, 
Agatha ; and I think that is hardly the word to 
apply to young Mr. Endicott. I think him a most 
gentlemanly person, and for so young a man de- 
cidedly an attractive one — and his profession is — 
of course it is perfect.” 

“I think,” I said boldly, “he would look far 
better if he were- captain of his little yacht. If I 
were a man I’d be in the navy or army. I don’t 
like to think of Mr. Endicott in a pulpit. ’ I know 
I should laugh.” 

“You do surprise me, Agatha,” and the gray 
eyes turned reprovingly upon me ; “ any one would 
think you were brought up in Fejee, instead of a 
Christian land, and under the very droppings of 
the sanctuary, as it were, all your life. Why is it 
so, Agatha ? Have I failed so signally in my duty 
to you that you have such a distaste for religious 
things ? ” And startled out of her usual calm, my 
aunt’s tone did border somewhat upon regret. 

“ I don’t know,” I said doggedly, though touched 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


47 


in spite of myself by the lingering remorse in her 
face, “ I don’t think the fault is yours at all, auntie. 
I’m just about as wicked and bad as a child can 
be, and the worst of it all is,” and I lowered my 
voice so Jane should not hear the unusual confes- 
sion from me, “ I don’t care.” 

Aunt Martha drew me to her suddenly. For 
the first time — oh, in ever and ever so long — she 
leaned down and touched her lips to my forehead. 
“ My child,” she said, ** pray, if not for my sake, 
fof your mother’s, remember some of the teach- 
ings which I have so imperfectly given you. Pray, 
Agatha; not only for yourself, but for me too.” 

My poor aunt ! I don’t think I ever came so 
near loving her in all my life as I did that night. 

The pleasant month of July was very nearly 
ended. The Endicotts would not have very much 
time to spend by the sea if they tarried longer, 
though perhaps, as Jane suggested, they would re- 
main all the year round, once they were back 
home again. I found myself thinking more of 
them every day, and speculating over the causes 
which kept them away, until no old and tried 
friend could be more ardently longed for than were 
these strangers from whose friendship I hoped so 
much. I felt my loneliness growing upon me more 


48 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


and more. I tried play, then I tried study. For 
two or three days the plan worked well, but I was 
too mercurial and unstable to settle down upon 
any one steady course of either action or inaction. 
It was very stupid, my aunt declared, to have no 
one of my own age ever to speak to. She would 
be sincerely glad fof her part when we went back 
to the city again. 

One day, after, writing Phil an unusually long 
letter, full to overflowing of my petty tribulations, 
I took my book and went out on the lawn to read. 
But the sun crept in under the branches and daz- 
zled my eyes and made my discontented little 
head ache, so I went up to the old stone-wall and 
found shelter under a wild grape-vine, which grew 
over a tree, and in whose luxuriant shadows I 
soon lost myself as well as in my book. It was an 
odd thing for a child of my years to read and like. 
It was “ Rollin ; ” but the only portion I ever 
read or cared for was the history of Alcibiades — 
everything that told of the young Athenian, ac- 
complished, handsome, witty, gay, chivalrous, had 
a charm for me. Over and over I read it. The 
thirty years’ war — the battles by sea and land — 
the changeful fortunes of my hero. The wise 
guardianship of the great Pericles — the wiser 


AGATHA LEE' S INHERITANCE. 


49 


training of the immortal Socrates — the triumphs 
of Artaxerxes and Lysander — all faded into noth- 
ingness when I read of this youthful diplomat and 
warrior — and then his miserable death at the last. 
Even that, tragic as it was, I loved to linger over. 
Very clearly I should know nothing of ancient 
Greece, or of the Medes and Persians, if I got no 
farther than Alcibiades. 

Some one walking on the graveled path close 
by the wall, on our neighbor’s domain, roused me ; 
some one walking slowly and singing. The words 
were new to me. He was singing them over softly 
to himself, but I heard every word clear and dis- 
tinct : 

“ One sweetly solemn thought 
Comes to me o’er and o’er, 

I’m nearer home to-day 

Than I ever have been before.” 

I put aside the trailing grape-vine and looked 
down. Beneath me, yet so close that I could .have 
put out my hand and touched him, walked my 
lately-found friend, Paul Endicott. He had been 
reading, for he carried a book in his hand, but he 
was not looking upon its open page. His head 
was thrown back ; his blue eyes, dreamy and far 
away, were fixed on vacancy. He paced slowly 


50 


AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE . 


down the walk, and was soon lost to sight in the 
shrubbery of the garden. I had never seen him 
so clearly in broad daylight before, and I drew a 
long breath when he had vanished. “ He is like 
Alcibiades ! ” I said, shutting my book and lean- 
ing my head upon my hands in a transport. “ I 
have never seen any one like him in all my life be- 
fore ! But Alcibiades surely was never intended 
for a clergyman ! ” 

Lost in this thought, and in another as well, the 
pleasure of seeing him back at last, I sat leaning 
upon my neglected book until he came slowly 
around the walk again. He was passing me all 
unnoticed as he had before, when I moved on my 
perch and attracted his attention. Then he came 
up to the wall and put aside the vines, calling me 
a little “ nixie ” for hiding away so — and “ how 
had I been,” and “ did I know he and his mother 
had been at the Hall for nearly two days — and 
would I jump down and go with him for a walk, 
or would I stay where I was in the shade and let 
him stand there and talk to me.” And then he 
picked up my book and laughed when he saw the 
title, and declared it should be “ Blue Beard ” or 
“ Cinderella,” at the least. And then I glanced ' 
at his and read, “Taylor’s Holy Living and' 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 51 

Dying,” and shut it up again with a sort of 
shudder. 

“ It's a horrible book,” I said, “ isn’t it ? What 
can there be interesting in such a dreary thing? ” 

A sudden flush of surprise passed over his face. 

“ What is so ‘ horrible ? ’ ” he inquired, “ the 
living or dying, my little friend, that you seem so 
shocked ? ” 

“ The dying,” I said under my breath. “ Oh, it 
is so hard-to think of that.” 

“ And I find life the harder of the two,” he an- 
swered softly. “ It is so hard to live aright. To 
know that every action — every thought of the 
heart tells so upon the life hereafter. That as we 
live here, so shall we be judged at the last great 
day. I don’t think death ever seems to me quite 
so hard as all that.” 

I had not a word to say to this. Only an in- 
stant before I had been comparing him to Alcibi- 
ades, and he had met me with a laughing jest 
about my “ nixie black eyes,” and five minutes 
after we were talking of death and eternity as 
solemnly as if that were all I had thought of since 
our last meeting. The blue eyes were grave now, 
and full of kindly inquiry ; they had such a quick 
way of changing from grave to gay, from laughing 


52 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

merriment to earnest thoughtfulness. He was 
very handsome, but I didn’t like even him in such 
a solemn mood, and hurriedly changed the sub- 
ject. 

“ Did you come down on a cloud ? ” I asked. 
“ I heard no bustle of arrival, and fancy you must 
have come that way.” 

“ Something very like it,” he answered laugh- 
ingly. “ I came in the Scud. Come, you said 
you wanted to see the little vessel ; she lies in the 
cove yonder ; if you will get your hat we can take 
a short cut through the woods and be down to the 
beach very soon ; will you go ? ” 

I slipped from my seat and ran breathlessly up 
to the house. It wasn’t necessary for me to tell 
Aunt Martha where I was going ; my ever being 
in the house was the exception, not the rule, and 
she had long before given up inquiries concerning 
my wanderings. 

“ Well, here you are,” he said when I came 
back, giving me his hand and lifting me over the 
wall. “ It don’t take you quite the time it usually 
takes young ladies to make their toilets. I like 
that hat — it’s sensible — ” 

“ I am not a young lady,” I said gravely. “ I 
am not fourteen years old yet.” 


AGATHA LEE' S INHERITANCE. 


53 


“ Pray don’t inform me of the melancholy fact ! 
I am longing for a companion more than I can 
tell, and you dash all my hopes to the ground in 
one fell blow.” 

u And I am very lonely since Phil went away,” 
I confessed. “ I am only too glad to go with you 
to-day.” 

“ And who is Phil, pray ? ” he inquired. 

“ Oh ! Phil is my cousin. He is away at school 
— we were never separated until he went away this 
year. That is why I am so very lonely — because 
I am too big to play with dolls now.” 

“ I should think so ; and how do you manage 
about the education system ? Do you go away to 
school too ? ” 

“ Oh ! no, I hope not. We go back to the city 
when it is too cool to stay here — then I take up 
my lessons again there, I don’t like it, though,” 
I said confidentially; “I had vastly rather stay 
here and read whatever I please.” 

“ Were you reading Rollin just now to please 
yourself, or did you call it study ? ” 

“ Oh ! to please myself. I like to read of the 
great war — and I love Alcibiades ; do not you ? 
Pray, Mr. Endicott, why are you not a soldier ? ” 

We were walking along the garden path, under 


54 A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

the shadow of the tall old maples, and my com- 
panion towering above me, graceful, elegant, like 
the Athenian of whom I delighted to read and 
dream ; but he stopped short when I spoke, look- 
ing down at me with the most unfeigned surprise 
in his boyish face. 

“ A soldier ? Because, Miss Agatha, it is the last 
profession on earth for which I have a taste. I 
am a lazy fellow naturally, too indolent by far, in 
the first place, to ever make choice of such an un- 
certain life. Then I don’t like the idea of war, 
anyway. ‘ Thou 'shalt not kill ’—you remember 
that Commandment ? ” 

“Yes, but,” I argued, “ that must mean isolated 
cases of willful murder. War and battle were 
ordained of God, sometimes.” And the time would 
fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of 
Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and 
Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith 
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob- 
tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of 
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, 
waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies 
of the aliens. “ Oh ! I know enough of the Bible to 
know that,” I said, with a little dignity. 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 55 

“Very true ; but under the new dispensation — 
under the law of Christ, can you tell me where 
He, the great lawgiver, bids us war upon one 
another, and to sack cities, and burn towns, and 
make homes desolate, all under the false cry of 
glory and honor ? ” 

“ i I came not to send peace upon earth, but a 
sword/ ” ventilating good Aunt Martha’s Bible les- 
sons with a vast deal of pride, but without really 
knowing why I used that as an argument. 

“ But you don’t take that literally. I take it as 
the warfare of truth against error ; religion against 
idolatry ; the doctrines of Christ against the world, 
the flesh, and the devil ; don’t you ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” I said ignorantly, and feeling 
that I knew too little of such things to offer an- 
other remark on the subject ; “ I don’t care, either. 
If I were a man I would be a soldier, and I would 
try and be like Alcibiades,” going back to my old 
allegiance. 

“ And why ? ” he persisted. “ He was not a good 
man.” 

“ I don’t care for being good,” I said, wickedly ; 
“ everybody liked him, and that is all one wants. 
It seems to me wonderful that one man could 
make everybody do just as he pleased they should 


56 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


do, and carry all hearts with him, whichever way 
he might choose to go.” 

“ And perish miserably in the end,” said my 
companion, gravely, “ and only have it recorded 
of him, that he never loved any one, himself being 
his sole motive, nor ever found a friend. I think 
that a very sad epitaph.” 

“ Not so sad as many we see in the church- 
yard,” I said sepulchrally ; “ I saw one the other 
day, I wish I could remember ; ” then stopped 
when I saw how soberly he was looking at me. 

By this time we had reached the fence which 
bounded the Endicott grounds. * There was a lit- 
tle stile over which we passed, and then we were 
in a thick dark wood, with its heavy undergrowth 
of scrub-oak and twisted vines, through which he 
pushed his way, holding back the boughs for me 
to pass under. There was not a ray of sunshine 
piercing through this thick green, but there was 
an ample supply of the lacking sunlight in my 
face and heart. 

“You are a born Gipsy,” he laughed, as he saw 
me scrambling through the bushes. “Your cheeks 
are as red as a rose, and your eyes as bright as two 
little stars. Tell me, am I as good a companion 
as the famous Phil ? ” 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 57 

“ Oh ! better,” I said quickly. “ Phil will tease 
me sometimes, and then sometimes we get tired of 
each other, after all.” 

“As you may get tired of me ! ” 

I laughed and plunged on into another thicket, 
coming out with “ old broad-brim,” as Phil called 
it, in my hand, and sundry scratches on my hands 
and face. It was a perfect delight for me to ex- 
plore these woods for the first time, with the 
cheery, pleasant voice of my companion in my 
ears, chatting first of one thing, then another; 
going from grave to gay, from lively banter and 
jest to sudden, serious mood : just like the chang- 
ing light which came to us ever and again through 
the wood. By the time we reached an open space 
we were both fain to sit down and rest. And then 
in the stillness of the forest we heard the steady, 
even boom of the surf, not very far away on the 
shore, and sat silently for a long time listening to 
its familiar voice. 

“Isn’t that beautiful?” I said, breaking the 
silence first, and feeling the act almost a sac- 
rilege. 

“What, the sound of the sea ? Yes. I love it ; 
but I was born here, near it, you know. I think 
we always love those things a little stronger when 


68 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE . 


they are thus associated with our very earliest 
recollections ; do not you ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” I answered. “ I never saw the 
sea, nor had the most remote idea of its size, ex- 
cept as I got it from books and maps, until I came 
here four months ago. I can not begin to tell you 
how I felt when I saw it first, and I can not tell 
you now how I love it. I think by far the better 
part of all which Mr. Hilton. left me, was the lit- 
tle strip of rock, looking out over the water, and 
the great song the waves are always singing, and 
which no one can ever possibly claim away from 
me. I wish we might always live here.” 

“ And will you not ? ” 

“ Perhaps, one of these days — if I am ever my 
own mistress I know I shall ; but there is a horrid, 
stupid life to get through before I am eighteen, 
you know.” 

“ Only five years,” said Mr. Endicott, coolly. 

“Only!” I echoed. “It seems, to me a life- 
time.” 

“You may make it tell on all your life-time in 
the future, if you use the time to good advantage,” 
he said softly. 

And then fearing he would be solemn again, I 
ran off to gather some bright green mosses and 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 59 

ferns which were growing around the trunk of a 
fallen tree, and he came after and helped me, and 
soon we were laughing and making quite a little 
collection of botanical treasures, until we remem- 
bered the boat, and took up our march again. A 
few steps brought us to it, and the “ cove ” he had 
been telling me of. Oh, what a place it was ! I 
thought I had never before seen anything so beauti- 
ful. Down at our feet it lay, a wedge of silent, 
glistening silver, in among the green salt meadows 
on either side, and rocking idly on its glassy sur- 
face the most perfect little vessel I had ever seen, 
with a flag just dropping from her peak, for there 
was not air enough to stir its folds. Then out be- 
yond, this wedge of silver spread and widened 
until it lost itself in the sea, and on one side a bar 
of white sand ran, like a long, thin, shadowy arm 
clasping the whole, and over it we heard the break- 
ers thundering and dashing. All day the air had 
been dense and full of heat, but the hush and the 
coolness of nearing twilight had fallen upon every, 
thing, and only this roar, distinct even in the dis- 
tance, broke the quiet of the hour as we strolled 
idly along the bank. I was too little to take his 
arm like a fine young lady, so he led me by the 
hand down the slope. 


60 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


“Would yogn like to go on board?” he asked. 
“ Would you like a sail to-night? ” 

“ Oh, eyer and ever so much,” I said, with a 
frantic sense of delight. “ But how can we ever 
get there ? ” 

" So easy ! ” squaring his shoulders with a look 
of pretended importance ; “ I am Aladdin, and I’ll 
just rub the wonderful lamp, and you’ll see the 
slave presently.” 

He put up his hands like a speaking-trumpet 
and halloed through them, and an instant after a 
man in a red flannel shirt tumbled on the deck 
and answered the call, and like magic, indeed, a 
little boat soon put off from the yacht, the red- 
shirted man in it rowing toward us while we 
waited on the bank ; the very boat I had watched 
so many weeks before,. “ flying the white breaker,” 
from my perch on the ledgy rock, where I had 
dropped to rest after my fright. When its keel 
grated the shore the man sprang out, pulling it up 
high and holding it there while Mr. Paul lifted me 
in and gave me a little seat way up in the bow by 
myself ; then taking another pair of oars, away we 
shot, the two dipping the long, thin blades regu- 
larly and evenly in the water, and in a few minutes 
bringing us alongside of the vessel, which lay mid- 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 61 

way in the stream. Then while the man held the 
boat firmly, he jumped on board and soon lowered 
a little pair of steps, up which I clambered with 
the help of his hand, and with a spring was by his 
side on the deck, and lost in delight at the beauty 
of the miniature ship. Over it we went, and if it 
had been the Great Eastern , I don’t think I 
could have been more filled with wonder. Of 
course I had to ask plenty of useless questions, 
and by the time the sails were up and we were 
gliding through the water with scarce enough wind 
to fill the crowding canvas, I thought myself vastly 
well informed in nautical matters, and was willing 
to go below decks and take a peep at the cabin. 
And Mr. Endicott was smilingly ready to tell me 
all I wished to know, and let me ask questions to 
my heart’s content; born Yankee that I was. 

“ Isn’t this lovely?” I said when we went up 
again, and I was fairly seated by his side, beam- 
ing upon him in a great state of beatitude, as we 
sailed away — happy as two children, I for one for- 
getting even my pet Alcibiades, when I looked up 
into my companion’s blue eyes and saw he was en- 
joying it just as much as I. “ Sailing away ! Drop- 
ping down from the beautiful bay,” leaving the 
shore behind us, the wind freshening the farther we 


G2 AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 

went, and the canvas rustling over our heads as 
we glided on and on, nearer and nearer the broad 
opening which lost itself in the sea. 

“What are you thinking of?” he asked, as I 
sat leaning my head on my hand, and looking 
back toward the fast-receding shore. 

“ It must be a fine thing to be a sailor,” I said, 
“ and to live on the sea all one’s life. I think I 
should be a sailor if I were a man.” 

“ How often would you change your mode of 
life, pray inform me ? An hour ago you would be 
a soldier,” trying to produce a most awful frown, 
but failing utterly. “Are you as unstable in your 
friendships ? ” 

“ I hope not. I have never been tried — I’ve 
never had anybody but Phil.” 

“And he has enjoyed a strict monopoly, has 
he ? Well, I’ll divide honors with him in the 
future.” 

“ I like you better than Phil,” I said candidly. 
“ I would like to have you for a friend always.” 

“A good beginning! I’m not used to compli- 
ments — debts always were a burden to me, and I 
must discharge mine instantly. I’ll promote you 
at once ; you shall be first mate — I’m the captain, 
you know.” 


A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


63 


“Very good! ” clapping my hands. “Has the 
first mate the privilege of her tongue — may she 
give orders, etc. ? ” 

“ When the captain is away the mate takes his 
place.” 

“ I feel quite grand already ; but has the mate to 
obey orders at all ? ” 

“ By all means. That’s the best part of it. 
Everybody is under the captain.” 

“Then I’d like to be captain.” 

“ Serve your time out as mate first, and be 
thankful. I might have made you a deck-boy, if 
I had pleased.” 

“ One of these days I will have a yacht of my. 
own,” I said reflectively. “ I shall be quite fit to 
command her by that time,” ignoring his last re- 
mark. “ I will have her built like this, only I 
shall give her a much more beautiful name.” 

“ Alcibiades ? ” making a flimsy pretense of 
gravity. 

“No, indeed! ” I answered; “some pretty In- 
dian name. How would Minnehaha do,? — laugh- 
ing water ; it’s so pretty, isn’t it^ only it’s rather 
common. How would Shawandasse do ? ” 

“ Capitally, little castle-builder, or boat-builder, 
rather.” 


64 AG A THA LEES INHERITANCE . 

“ Well, what would you have me do ? ” I said. 
“ One must have her dreams and her castles, or 
boats, as you may please to call it ; everybody does 
so ; even I at my age have had mine ! ” 

“ Had ? Then they are past — dreams over at 
thirteen ? ” lifting his eyebrows. 

“Well, the one dream of my life has come and 
gone,” I said, feeling that he was longing to laugh 
at me. “ I used to think if I had this home and 
was independent, and had not to go to Aunt Mar- 
tha for everything, I should be perfectly happy. 
Phil and I used always to console ourselves with 
‘ When our ship comes from over the sea,’ and 
mine came one day and brought me all this,” 
spreading my hands out toward my home. “ I 
haven’t sent out a single bark since then.” 

“ Then you can’t look for any returns to port, 
as I am looking all the time. I send out so many 
sails that more than half are wrecked before they 
ever see port. Come, send out a sail or two to- 
night to keep my fleet company.” 

“Your fleet, eh?” 

“Yes, a perfect Armada of good resolutions, 
solemn wishes, prayers, and longings, more than I 
can begin to number.” 

“I don’t like good resolutions,” I answered. 


AGATHA LEE' S INHERITANCE. 65 

“ Let’s wreck the whole fleet, and begin again. 
Let us have a little pleasure instead.” 

“ Or combine the two,” he said gravely. 

The sun was just losing itself in crimson clouds, 
and he stood so long looking at them, and without 
saying another word, that I asked, “ Where were 
his thoughts 5 ” 

“ Do you remember, in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ how 
the light kept shining before Christian all the 
way, leading up to the little wicket gate ? ” asking 
the question in a low, dreamy voice. 

And I answered “yes” in just as low a tone. 

“Don’t-that path the sun leaves on the water 
make you think of it ? ” 

“ I wish we could sail right over it — up to the 
wicket, and get there soon. Eh, Captain Paul, 
wouldn’t it be easy? ” 

“Well, let us go,” he said, turning around, 
with his hand on the tiller, to look at me. “ Say, 
shall we take the path and go straight on until we 
reach the Celestial City ? ” 

“Really,” I said, being very literal in all my 
ideas, “ why, we could never reach it in that way.” 

“ No, but we could reach it in another. Come, 
I will make a compact with you, little playfellow. 
We will take the path, and together, but not the 
5 


66 AGA THA LEE S I NEE RITA NCE. 

path shining over the seas yet awhile. We’ll go 
on very quietly here for a little time, and I am 
sure can find the light ahead just as well. We’ll 
help each other — that’s what we will do — and in 
taking steps heavenward be learning something of 
one another.” 

“ I might from you, but you could never learn 
anything good from me. I’m awful wicked, and it 
don’t trouble me a bit.” 

“ But it will trouble me,” he said softly, “ since 
you have told me of it; and I can not take one 
step toward the wicket without you. Say, will 
you help me with your company on the way ? ” 

“ I am Pliable,” I said. “ I shall get into the 
Slough, and you’ll only have the trouble of drag- 
ging me out. I’ve been in it more or less ever 
since I was born, as auntie will tell you. Better 
go alone.” 

“ Not a step without you.” 

“ Then come drag me out,” I said, holding up 
both my hands ; “ I’m in already.” 

“ Really ? What trouble now ? ” 

And as we drifted slowly along, he put out his 
hand and drew me up to him. 

“What has happened now ? ” opening his large, 
blue eyes to give me a good look. 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


67 


“ I don't want to be a saint,” I said crossly. 
“ Aunt Martha is one — everybody says she is — and 
I can’t bear saints; and it’s dreadful to be pious 
and to talk of dying, and I know you will talk to 
me just that way.” 

“ No, I won’t,” he said, shaking his head, and 
going up to the red-shirted man to give some 
orders, and then amid a great flapping of sail and 
rattling of cords, the vessel rounded to, and bore 
toward the bay again. “ We’ll talk about going 
home now,” he said, as he came back to me. 
“ And so you have enjoyed the sail, have you ? 
We will begin earlier next time. I’m a little afraid 
Miss Lee will not have a very exalted opinion of 
the captain or first mate, if we don’t make port 
earlier than this.” 

“Why, the sun is not down yet,” I said, looking 
up. 

“ But it will be before I hand you over the gar- 
den wall. Look ! Isn’t it beautiful up yonder? ” 
pointing to the clouds. 

Beautiful? I should think it was ! Wouldn’t 
it always be beautiful out there in the little cove, 
with the clouds so bright and piled up, just 
like the towers of a .great, fair city, even the 
heavenly of which he had been talking. 


68 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


“ Nearer the great white throne. 

Nearer the crystal sea — ” 

hummed my companion softly to himself, while the 
waves upon the shore seemed to rise up, stretch- 
ing white arms toward me, and beating time to the 
soft music of the words as they trembled in my 
heart, while I looked and listened by his side. 

I was quick to appreciate beauty of any kind. 
I didn’t need my captain to point it out to me. 'I 
had seen it all in a flash while we had been talking 
of the wicket. 

“ I like to watch the clouds and the sea,” I said 
in a low voice. “ It is always the same sea, yet 
never the same either. Never saying the same 
things, never singing the same songs, but each 
day more beautiful and wonderfuh- Heaven don’t 
seem so far off as it does in the city,” I said mus- 
ingly. 

“ It isn’t so far away,” his eyes still fixed on the 
changing clouds. 

“ It seems very near and close sometimes, and 
it is so long to wait ; and there are so many pit- 
falls and Giant Despairs and Doubting Castles to 
meet on the way. I wish I could put them all 
away now.” 

And when he lifted me over the vessel’s side 


AGATHA LEE’ S INHERITANCE. 


69 


into the little boat once more I saw a shadow, 
graver than any I had seen before, resting upon 
the handsome face and quenching all the mirth 
out of the blue eyes. So that our walk home in 
the “gloamin” was a more silent one than our 
walk down. And the moon very kindly came up 
and condescended to beam upon us most serenely, 
while by its pale light we found our way back to 
the Lee, and I discovered that for once in her life 
Aunt Martha h^id roused sufficiently to send Jane 
out in search for me. But Mr. Endicott’s explana- 
tions and excuses smoothed her brow very quickly 
again, and after he had gone, I sat down by her 
side and gave her a most incoherent and alto- 
gether original rhapsody on yachts, captains, red- 
shirts, and the glory of knighthood. An irretriev- 
ably mixed-up account I made of it, but the first 
mate of the Scud had no modesty regarding her 
new honors, and would have proclaimed the im- 
portant fact from the house-tops if there had been 
any one below to hear. 


CHAPTER V. 


Thus the days and weeks flew by, and autumn 
was wearing on apace. Still Aunt Martha and I 
clung to our pleasant home at the Lee, and still 
Paul Endicott continued a most frequent visitor. 
There was scarcely a day that did not in some 
way end with our being together ; oftenest upon th e 
beach, where he loved to walk and dream and 
listen to the sea, as much as I, though it talked to 
him in a far different way, and much more 
solemnly, than it ever did to me. 

I grew immensely nautical about this time, and 
talked of jibs, mainsails, and booms with a ‘ fore 
and aft ’ swagger as if I had been on a quarter- 
deck all my life, and knew nothing beyond it; 
and more than once I* felt like telling Aunt Mar- 
tha to “ avast ” as she was reviewing our Bible-les- 
sons of a pleasant Saturday, when I would have 
preferred infinitely a stroll on the sands. I knew 
every rope, sail, and cord on the little Scud by 
that time. Again and again had I been on her 
( 70 ) 


AGATHA LEE' S INHERITANCE. 


71 


decks, sailing away with Paul through the golden 
sunset of those rare September days ; sailing away 
until it seemed to me that nothing could be perfect 
or beautiful in life for me any more unless shared 
with him. I never called him Mr. Endicott. I be- 
gan, it is true, most decorously, giving him his proper 
title, which resolved itself after a little into “ Cap- 
tain,” and finally dwindled down, at his express 
desire, into simply “Paul.” I was Aggie to him, 
the same as to Phil, and really he did not seem so 
very much older than I, after all, for he came down 
to my years and intellect, and was so bent upon 
taking the place of brother to me, that when six 
weeks had gone by, and I remembered I had only 
known him for that length of time, I could scarcely 
credit it as real. Whatever could he, a fine young 
student, find to please him in an uninteresting 
little girl of thirteen, was more a matter of aston- 
ishment to me than my fancy for him. He cer- 
tainly left nothing undone to make me feel per- 
fect freedom with him, though why he should 
have done so, was odd and unaccountable. He 
was always coming over to the house with a new 
book for Aunt Martha, or a magazine or paper for 
me, and whenever he went to the city, oame back 
loaded with bonbons enough to make me ill for a 


72 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


week if I had ever began to devour half the 
amount he supplied me with. And as for me, to 
walk by his side whenever and wherever he pleased 
to lead the way — to lean over the rail of the fa- 
mous Scud , and to watch with him the silver track 
the vessel made in her speed; or in idle and 
delicious calm, to sit silent while we each dreamed 
our own dreams as we floated on with the swell of 
the tide ; or again in the little summer-house, or 
perched on the ledge of the old gray rock over- 
looking the beach while he read to m*e— was de- 
light and comfort enough to beguile me into for- 
getting all else but him. He was a friend, a 
brother indeed. Phil in all his life had never come 
so near to my heart as in that short month had 
Paul Endicott. One day I missed my friend. It 
was a lonely twenty-four hours, but I got through 
it ; still another day came and went and no sign 
of him. I began to be seriously annoyed ; surely 
something must have happened — I would go and 
hunt him up, I thought ; but then some of his col- 
lege chums might have come down and I would 
be very much out of place among them. No, I 
would stay where' I . was and improve my mind 
with a bopk. Paul was always advising some such 
profitable course. I went down into the parlor, 


v 


A GA THA L EE' S INHERIT A NCE. 73 

but found Aunt Martha monopolizing the bay-win- 
dow, lost in the depths of her easy-chair, and 
reading with a face of serenest enjoyment. 
But at a glance over her shoulder I hardly consid- 
ered it an exhilarating subject, inasmuch as it 
treated of the martyrdom of Polycarp. It made 
me very dismal to but think of it, so I went on 
into the library, opened the book-case, and dragged 
down Audubon into the window seat. I was soon 
lost in admiration of the pictures, if nothing more. 

“ Glad to see you so literary,” said Paul’s cheer- 
ful voice, sounding at my elbow, and I sprang up, 
and held out both hands to him as if I hadn’t seen 
him in weeks. 

“ Where upon earth have you been hiding ? ” I 
asked ; and then resentfully, “ Are you tired of me 
already, that you ran away ? ” 

“ Ran away ? You embodiment of ingratitude ! 
Why, how long is it since I beamed upon your 
benighted little soi5l like a full moon rising ? ” 

“ A whole day and a half — no, three-quarters. 
Pray, what have you been about? ” 

“ I have got a few duties in life left me yet,” he 
said solemnly. “ My maternal ancestor declares I 
might as well be back in college for all that she 
sees of me here. No, little Nixie. I must alter 


74 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


my course of conduct speedily. I’ll give you all of 
the day but the mornings and evenings ; those go 
to my mother after this.” 

“ And when will my share of the day begin ? ” I 
asked with a groan. 

“About this time — now.” And he tucked me 
under his arm, and off we flew down to the cove. ' 
There lay the Scud, and away we sailed. 

What a pleasant ending to that dismally-begun 
day it proved to be ! Paul steered to a part of 
the coast I had never ‘seen before, and where a 
number of rough-looking men, in flannel shirts, 
stood to their middle in the water, raking with i, 
long iron rakes, and bearing big bags upon their 
backs. He explained they were raking clams or 
oysters, and we stood and watched them a long 
time, until he finally proposed going ashore and 
negotiating for some ; and then we got in the little 
boat and rowed up to the beach ; and as there was 
no surf on that side, Paul gave me my first lesson 
in rowing, and a great splashing and dashing of 
water was the feeble result, until he took the other 
pair of oars, and a few hasty strokes of his brought 
us to shore. And right there on the sands we 
had a most delightful impromptu “ clam-bake.” 
I took a ramble a little way back, collecting to- 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


75 


gether all the chips and dried sticks I could find, 
and filling my invaluable old broad-brim with them, 
I made sundry trips to and fro, while Paul brought 
up the dams, raked together all the inflammable 
material we could find, and started our fire. 

“It's quite a little Gipsy entertainment, Paul,” 
I said as I brought my hat for the last time filled 
to overflowing, and decidedly the worst for the 
burdens it had borne. “ But where did you get 
matches ? ” 

“ Oh, I’ve never got rid of my boyish habit of 
stuffing my pockets,” he answered laughingly. 
“ I have ever and ever so many things besides a 
tinder-box and flint there.” 

“ Have you ? ” I said. “ Have you anything 
good ? ” 

“For instance, chocolate creams ? ” 

“Well, yes. I wouldn’t object to chocolate 
creams ; but you could never carry them in your 
pocket, Paul. Tell me something more sensible 
than that.” 

“ Macaroons, then,” rifling the pocket of his 
walking jacket, “and a trifle or two in the way of 
fruit,” pulling out some rosy-cheeked Bartletts, 
“and a suspicion, just the faintest suspicion of 
rare-ripes.” 


76 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

“What a jolly Captain the Scud has,” I raptur- 
ously commented. 

“ Too jolly by far. I’m spoiling the first mate. 
She will never be able to come down to salt junk 
and hard-tack.” 

And then our fire being ready, we raked up the 
glowing coals and deposited a goodly supply of 
bivalves thereon, and sat down with begrimed 
hands and flushed cheeks to partake of the regal 
repast. I think I never enjoyed a meal more in 
my life, and since that day of charming recollec- 
tions I can safely aver that a clam has been to me 
a “ thing of beauty and a joy forever ! ” For Paul 
had made me a very happy child, and real unal- 
loyed happiness was a rare thing in my life until I 
had known him. Somehow I never had been able 
to entertain as a sentiment of my own the very 
popular idea that childhood was the happiest 
period of one’s existence. It had been anything 
but that to me until Paul came. I heard a great 
many grown-up people lamenting and bewailing 
the shackles of the poor slaves, and striving to 
sunder their bonds; but I never in all my life 
heard one gentle, pure-minded woman lift up her 
voice and earnestly protest against the unmitigated 
slavery of childhood. It is very true Aunt Mar- 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 77 

tha was no feminine Legree, or modern Nero, in 
walking-skirt and balmorals. She very likely in- 
dulged me in my wild vagaries very much more 
than the generality of children are indulged ; 
nevertheless it was extremely galling to me, as an 
incipient free-thinker, to have my mode of life, 
dress, and conduct as distinctly laid out for me 
as if I were a lump of clay, and my good aunt 
the potter. I inwardly rebelled against the whole 
system of servitude, and was glad to add day after 
day to my life, and rapidly emerge from it. Paul 
Endicott was helping me out of it more than even 
I could realize, and I was fast blooming out into 
opinions which were allowed, and tastes that were 
tolerated, simply because my new friend’s protec- 
tion was as good a warrant of proper conduct as 
if I had been bound over to keep the peace. Aunt 
would have been shocked if she could have seen 
me curled up on the sands that day, with grimy 
face and hands, no hat on, eating hot clams with 
my fingers, and a plentiful supply of ashes sprinkled 
on them in lieu of salt. 

“ This is vastly better than reading of Polycarp’s 
martyrdom, with which auntie was so delighted 
to-day,” I said. 

Paul made two interrogation points of his eye- 


78 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

brows, and I explained, adding the bivalves were 
the better of the two. 

‘‘Don’t jest about such things,” with a sudden 
changing to gravity, “but come sit here on the 
sands by me. 1 didn’t show you all the fine 
things these ample pockets contained. Shall 
we rifle them once more, now the feast is 
ended ? ” 

“ Oh, yes,” I assented, with the last “ rare-ripe ” 
rendering me very nearly speechless, “business 
first, pleasure afterward. Go ahead, Paul.” 

He had a book there, and I knew it, for I saw 
the brown paper package peeping from his pocket. 
He was always sending to the city for books, and 
it was one of the new ones. “ Thank goodness,” I 
said inwardly, “ it couldn’t be ‘ Taylor’s Holy Liv- 
ing and Dying.’ ” And then he drew forth the 
little parcel and untied the cord very leisurely as 
he asked me if he should read. 

I said “ yes,” but I kept my eyes on the book, 
feeling as if I had suddenly swallowed a dose of 
chloroform, instead of a peach. 

“ I bought them for you, Aggie,” he said. “ I 
fancied you would like them — if not now, you will 
when you get a little older.” 

They were two dainty little volumes in blue arid 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 79 

gold, and I caught up one delightedly, reading 
“ Whittier’s Poems ” on the back. 

“ Oh, Paul ! ” I said with a sudden warmth 
that made him smile, “and are they really for 
me ? ” 

“ Really for you, Nixie ! ” 

“ How good you are to me, Paul ! Why are you 
so good to me ? ” 

“ Shall I continue to be good ? Shall I read 
you something? ” 

“ Oh, yes — please. Was it Whittier who wrote 
the 1 Changeling/ Paul ? ” 

“Yes, and here it is. Shall I read it again to 
you ? ” 

And throwing himself by my side on the sand, 
he read over for me the quaint, witching little 
story which I had read, and liked ever and ever so 
much, in one of the magazines he had brought 
down “ to auntie.” 

And then turning over leaf after leaf, and read- 
ing me favorite bits here and there, he chanced 
upon one more beautiful than any which he had 
read before. Can there be any fitter place than 
down on the shores of the sea to hear for the first 
time in one’s life the haunting melody and pathos 
of the “Swan Song of Parson Avery,” or the 


80 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


solemn and beautiful words of “ My Psalm,” which 
followed it, made still more solemn by the many- 
toned whisperings of the waters near ? How the 
words spoke to my heart — deep, earnest, and 
thoughtful, yet simple enough for even a child to 
understand. My heart felt no longer rebellious, 
or skeptical, while I listened to the musical flow 
and rhythm of the words : 

“ The west winds blow, and, singing low, 

I hear the glad streams run ; 

The windows of my soul I throw 
Wide open to the sun.” 

How I longed to throw open the windows of my 
soul to just such sunshine. Oh, for faith ; for 
just such faith as that. But I dared not frame my 
thoughts into words. I would not even to Paul 
confess how tender a chord the sweet words 
touched and woke in my heart. 

I sat silent long after he had ended, and until 
he said in his quiet way, “You liked it, Aggie ? 
Yes ; I know by your face when you like anything ; 
it’s a mirror to me, and I read a great many things 
upon its tell-tale surface, sometimes.” 

“ Oh, Paul,” I said without looking up, “ you 
read enough wickedness to shock you many times, 
then.” 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 81 

“ I read that the door of the little rebellious 
heart will not always be barred to good and gentle 
thoughts. It will fling the portals wide open, and 
let in all the sweet sunshine waiting without. 
‘ The angel sought so far away,’ you will yet ‘ wel- 
come at your door * ; won’t you, Agatha? ” he said 
softly as he laid one hand on mine. 

I did not answer, and tried to draw my hand 
away from his, feeling that he was going to talk 
solemnly to me in just the way he always ended 
every pleasure. He was like a sugar-coated pill, I 
thought — all the nice white sugar, to tempt one 
first ; then the advice and good counsel, like the 
bitter, black dose under it all. 

Neither spoke for several minutes after this. I 
was thinking of the pill, and piling up little sand 
forts at my feet, and Paul was writing my name on 
the white fly-leaf of my new book, and then mark- 
ing one of the poems. 

After we got home that night I hastily undid 
the wrapper, and read my name, the date, and 
“ Down on the Sands ” below it ; and the words 
he had marked were these : 

“ The Present, the Present is all thou hast 
For thy sure possessing : 

6 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

Like the Patriarch’s angel, hold it fast 
Till it gives its blessing. 

Why fear the night ? Why shrink from Death, 
That phantom wan ? 

There is nothing in heaven or earth beneath, 
Save God and man ; 

Peopling the shadows we turn from Him, 

And from one another ; 

All is spectral and vague and dim 
Save God and our brother 


CHAPTER VI. 


“ Agatha,’' said my aunt to me one night after 
one of these long strolls on the beach, as I came 
in with my hands full of shells, sea-tangle, and 
trailing moss, and my hair blown all about my 
face. “ My dear Agatha, I would never have be- 
lieved myself capable of surviving such an inun- 
dation of dried grasses, reptiles, and stones as has 
been accumulating in our garret of late. I took 
a trip up there to-day, and I verily believe you 
have rifled the sea. What do you intend doing 
with all these things? ” 

“ I am making a collection, aunt,” I said. “ The 
sea-ferns and grasses I shall press. The minerals, 
together with the Serpula, Echinus, etc., I shall 
put in cases, or on the shelves, if I can’t get the 
cases. To-day I got this,” and I displayed admir- 
ingly the sea-horse which Paul had given me that 
very morning. She made a gesture of disgust. 

“ I do not know what new horror will seize 

(83) 


84 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

you when we get back to the city,” she sighed 
plaintively. 

“ It won’t be in some time yet,” I said, putting 
the evil day away from my thoughts. 

“ It will be in just another fortnight,” said Aunt 
Martha, “so make the most of it. I can not take you 
back to the city looking any more like a Gipsy, or 
an untutored savage, than you are looking already ; 
pray spend the next fortnight as you have spent 
all this summer ; and if it were not that such an ex- 
ceedingly proper companion as Mr. Paul Endicott 
directed your tastes, I should most certainly object 
to the whole thing even now ; as the case stands, 
suit yourself for the remainder of the time.” 

I knew I was always annoying aunt ; my care- 
lessness in dress ; my unlucky feet, always 
laden with sand or mud ; my disordered hair ; my 
generally vagabondish appearance, was enough to 
provoke any one into losing a saintship, and now 
my inundation of filthy specimens in the hitherto 
clean garret, I felt to be a crowning point. 

I had never a word to say, but I stole up to my 
treasures and sat down over them with clasped 
hands and tear-filled eyes. To go away — to leave 
all the pleasure behind, and for six long months 
to come to be pent up in an atmosphere of rigid 


AGATHA LEE S INHERITANCE. 


85 


propriety — to go to school and say my lessons 
wearily — to take a daily walk on ugly stone pave- 
ments — to be away from Hilton Lee — from the 
great blue ocean — to be away from Paul ! 

I summed up all my grievances, crowning them 
thus: To be away from Paul. And at this last 
thought I leaned my face down upon my wet moss- 
es and let my tears flow silently over them. 

“What, little Nixie, up here and alone? ” said 
Paul’s voice, sounding close to my ear. 

“I have been looking all over for you in the 
garden, and your aunt told me I would find you 
here, making a collection. She said I might come 
and help you. What is it to be ? A collection of 
tears? ” And he pulled out his handkerchief and 
said I was to give the word when he should begin. 

Ashamed to be found crying by him, I swal- 
lowed my sobs, never daring to lift my head. 
Then he put his arms about me and drew me to him. 

“Little sister,” he said, “look up. Look up, 
and tell me what it is that grieves you so. Hush ! 
hush ! ” patting my hand soothingly. 

“ Don’t be good to me,” I cried, throwing off 
his hand ; “ don’t be good to me any more. I have 
only to go away and leave it all — and don’t make 
it any harder for me than now.” 


86 A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

“ Going away ! ” he echoed. “ Where ? To the 
source of the Nile? To the mountains of the 
moon, where I could not reach you if I tried ever 
so much ? Speak, and I shall bear it bravely.” 

“You do not care at all,” I said, half indignant 
with him that he should jest over my trouble. 
“ You do not care, and it’s just as well I am going 
away.” 

“ Just exactly,” in the same easy tone. “ As I 
go away very soon myself, it matters little to me 
whether you are here or there. In any case, I 
shall not see you until Christmas time.” 

“ But will I see you then ? ” 

“You surely will, <f we both live. My mother 
will go to the city, and I must come and see her. 
Why may I not see you as well ? And now, away 
with melancholy, and to our ‘ collection.’ Tears 
or grasses ? ” 

“Neither,” I said, “but you will please give me 
a helping hand with my minerals, and not say an- 
other word.” 

So Paul put up his handkerchief, and sorting 
out the best of the shells, we piled them in long 
rows upon one of the shelves which I had emptied 
for that purpose. Then the grasses, ferns, and 
moss we packed in a great heap on one side, to be 


AGATHA LEE’S INHERITANCE. 


87 


left for another day; and we worked over our 
curiosity shop, as we called our three shelves, until 
the shadows lengthened, and the twilight began to 
creep into the room. 

“ Tell me one thing,” I said as we went up to 
the open garret window, and looked out for a long 
time silently over the quiet landscape below ; “ do 
tell me one thing— shall you fit yourself for the 
Church, as you once told Aunt Martha you 
should ? ” 

He looked down at me in an utterly perplexed, 
astonished manner. 

“ Why, child, that is what I am doing now. 
Why do you ask ? ” 

Studying for the ministry ! And owning a yacht, 
and sailing a\vay with me day after day, rambling 
over the old woods, or out on the .sands and into 
the surf; sometimes as much of a child as I, and 
studying for the ministry ! 

Was I dreaming? Evidently not; for, sitting 
down on the broad window seat, he drew me 
toward him. 

‘‘Aggie, tell me — am I so very unclerical ? Do 
I seem to you so little fitted for this vocation, that 
you are surprised ? ” 


88 AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

This time the gay banter all died out of his tone, 
and his voice sounded to me full of pain. 

I hung my head, not daring to meet the blue 
eyes. 

“ Tell me,” he said again. “ Let me know ex- 
actly what you think of me. Child that you are, 
I value your opinion.” 

“ Then do not,” looking desperately up at him, 
“ do not any more ; you are all that is good, manly, 
and true — too good by far — too good to throw it 
all away in a dull, stupid old pulpit ; oh, no ! you 
are fitted for anything, dear Paul ; you can be any- 
thing you choose ; but oh ! not that ; do not bury 
yourself that way ! ” 

“ Is that the reason ? ” he said, holding both my 
hands firmly in his, and looking down upon me as 
if he would read my very soul. “ Is that the only 
reason ? Have I never given you cause to think 
me an idler and a trifler — a waster of time in my 
Master’s vineyard — an unfaithful steward ? Oh ! 
Aggie, if only it were not that!” 

He seemed to feel it so deeply himself — all his 
own unworthiness at this time pressing upon his 
soul, darkened every other feeling. 

The last lingering rays of the dying day stole 


A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 89 

in through the open window and lit up the fair, 
boyish head, and showed me the deep blue eyes, 
serious and earnest, searching mine. 

“ It is so hard to be anything but light-hearted 
and happy,” he said after a moment’s silence. 
“ And it is so pleasant to be again a child, as I 
have been this summer with you ; but none the 
less firmly have I held to this, the dearest scheme 
of my heart, the plan of my life. I laid it out be- 
fore me when I first left home, while I was a boy 
in school. I kept that end in view, just as Chris- 
tian kept the light shining at the little wicket ever 
before him. You are such a strange child, and 
have such strange ideas of things, that perhaps I 
have not talked to you quite as I should have 
done ; but all the same, this is one of the dearest 
hopes of my heart — to work, be it ever so feebly, 
while it is called to-day, in the vineyard of the 
Lord. Can you give me ‘ God-speed,’ my little 
friend? Will you ask to-night, if you have never 
asked it for me before, that His Spirit may go up 
with me, and give me finally the rest for which my 
soul is longing ? ” 

How grave and solemn his voice sounded to me 
in the hush of the quiet night. Was it the same 
Paul, who, an hour before, had pulled out his 


90 


A GA THA LEES INHERITANCE . 


handkerchief with such a comical face and asked 
leave to shed tears with me ? I scarcely knew 
him, so changed was he. I didn’t like him half so 
well in this sober mood of his ; I wished he 
would do anything but talk religion to me. To be 
sure, several times he had spoken seriously, and 
would have said much more had I encouraged him 
to do so, but at this moment there seemed no pos- 
sible way of averting it. I saw how it would be, 
and strove to rally. 

“ Come down-stairs,” I said. “Aunt Martha 
would be petrified if she thought I • was enter- 
taining visitors in the garret. Come down to the 
parlor.” 

“ Not to-night,” he answered absently ; but giv- 
ing me his hand as he turned away from the win- 
dow, “ I do not feel quite fike seeing Miss Lee to- 
night. Will you walk with me in the garden ? or, 
stay, will you come out with me and see my 
mother? Yes, come with me and see my mother.” 

“ She is so great an invalid,” I said, “ she will 
not care to be troubled with a child to-night.” 

“ But she will welcome you very gladly, not only 
for your own sake, but mine as well. Come.” 

We went down the stairs hand in hand, like two 
children, and feeling our way cautiously along in 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 91 

the darkness, until suddenly I recollected my dis- 
ordered dress, rough hair, and mud-stained hands 
— alas ! I had not looked a pair of gloves in the 
face since I came down to the Lee. 

“Not to-night,” I said. “Oh, Paul, not to- 
night. Wait until we get in the hall, and then 
give one good look at me and tell me what your 
mother would take me for ? ” 

And when under the full blaze of the suspended 
lamp, as I spread my hands and stood before him 
for inspection, even the grave look died out of his 
face, and he laughed as heartily as I. 

“ Quite a little nixie — there was no doubt about 
that.” And so he went off to his mother, and 
again I got rid of the long solemn talk with which 
he had threatened me that evening. 

What a dreary thing it was to me to be pious, in 
those days. 


CHAPTER VII. 


The fortnight sped all too rapidly away. The 
days were growing cooler, the nights almost too 
cool to be pleasant, with the air so fresh and keen 
blowing over us from the sea. But still Paul and I 
kept up our wanderings, still he occasionally drop- 
ped little serious thoughts down into my heart ; 
and, without my daring to acknowledge it even to 
myself, giving me something to ponder over in the 
quiet of my room at night when alone ; and, 
though I strove to resist the influence, it all un- 
consciously did retain a hold on my memory and 
heart. 

Aunt Martha had called several times to see 
Paul’s mother; I had never done so, although he 
had often tried to coax me into her sitting-room ; 
but I was afraid of strangers, and feared their 
criticisms ; besides, she was a great invalid, con- 
fined to her room much of the time, and if she 
were nervous at all, I felt confident my advent 
( 92 ) 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


93 


would be like a trial of the rack to her delicate 
nerves ; so I just stayed away. In the pleasant 
mornings sometimes I would see Paul take her for 
a little drive, in a low pony-carriage, or walking 
around the cool shaded paths near the house, lean- 
ing upon his arm, walking slowly, very slowly, and 
wrapped in her heavy shawl, although it was warm 
, September weather. Then I knew, when he had 
taken her back very carefully into the house again, 
that some portion of that day was given to me, as 
she did not claim him again until evening, when 
she liked him to read or talk to her. Very happy 
evenings those were that mother and son enjoyed 
alone and quietly by themselves, if one could be- 
lieve Paul’s views on the subject, and we were 
never able to beguile him into spending any of 
them with us, unless she was too ill to have him 
with her; 

The last days of our fortnight were come and 
gone. The last night we would be at the Lee fol- 
lowed all too quickly. The house looked lonely 
and deserted enough already, with the carpets 
rolled up and put away in the garret with my 
“ collection,” which really monopolized every 
square inch of room on the broad shelves. The 
furniture was all swathed up, each separate piece 


94 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


looking as if it were wearing a shroud. The books, 
magazines, pens, paper, and little trifles which 
lumbered up the tables, had all been cleared away, 
and everything wore the desolate look of a house 
about to be shut up for the winter. The servants 
were gone, and only Jane remained to gladden 
auntie’s heart, and our last tea was a very com- 
ical, impromptu affair, in which we ate solemn 
pieces of bread and butter and all the “ odds and 
ends in the pantry,” as Jane declared, drinking 
cold water instead of the warm chocolate, which my 
soul loved, sans table-cloth, sans knives, sans forks, 
sans ceremonie , and our breakfast the next morning 
was to be obtained on the boat. We had refused 
the invitations of the Endicotts to sup with them, 
but in the evening Paul brought over a basket of 
fine peaches and a message from his mother, 
“ Would Miss Lee spend the evening with her, 
and so allow Paul to take one more ramble with 
his little favorite on the beach ? ” 

“ Just a good-bye, Miss Lee, to everything about 
here, you know ; you will not refuse us ? ” And 
Aunt Martha yielding, he saw her across the lawn, 
and then came back for me, tucking me under 
his arm and pinning a shawl about my shoulders, 
though I rebelliously declared I should suffocate. 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


95 


The night was beautiful and clear, and the moon 
was just coming up, striking a long, bright, silvery 
path over the sea, as we walked very silently down 
to the big rock on the sands. I was the first to 
break the silence. 

“ Oh, Paul,” I said, “ what shall I do without 
you?” clinging to his arm, looking up in his 
face, and, like a child, speaking the first unquiet 
thoughts of my heart at once. 

But Paul had no answer to this, and when I 
looked in the grave face, showing white in the 
moonlight, I could not refrain from whispering : 

“ Are you sorry I am going away ? ” 

“ J am, indeed, little friend,” with a slight tremor 
which I could not but notice in his voice, “ more 
sorry than I can express, and yet I hope to see 
you very soon again.” 

“ When ? ” I interrogated. 

“ When I come to my mother, in the city, at 
Christmas time. I shall find you out, you may 
rest assured. To be truthful, Aggie, I don’t think 
the parting weighs so heavily upon me to-night as 
upon you. If we live, we shall certainly see each 
other again very soon.” 

“ But not here,” I said; “and oh, Paul, it has 
been such a happy, happy summer ! If I do see 


96 AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

you at Christmas time, it will not be like having 
you all to myself down here.” 

And then he reached out a hand to me, which I 
took and pressed with all the gratitude and energy 
of my energetic nature. 

“ Yes, it has been a happy summer,” he said, 
“ a happy, happy summer,” lingering over my 
words, and laying his other hand over mine. “ And 
for all this happiness your heart has no thanks to 
give but to me? Oh, Agatha.” 

“ I have meant to be good, indeed I have, Paul,’* 
I cried; “but I can’t be good like you ; I don’t 
like pious people, and I don’t love to read my 
Bible very much, and JL don’t love to talk of such 
things. Don’t spoil this one last night, Paul ! ” 

“ No,” he said, steadily, “ I won’t spoil our part- 
ing, I hope, but I must give you a few things to 
think over, now you are leaving me. You will re- 
member them, Aggie, if only in memory of our 
pleasant two months together. You will promise 
me sometimes to think seriously and solemnly. I 
have been so grieved since I have known you, to 
think how little you give yourself to any earnest 
thought of the future. You are young, and a long, 
happy life is before you, I trust ; but the young 
often die. I had a little sister once, who ‘ folded 


AGA 7 ITA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 97 

the white tent of her life’ and was laid down to 
rest under the violets when she was ever so much 
younger than you. I think that is one reason I 
have loved you so. She would be about your age 
now, had she lived. We see children dying 
around us every day, and why may not you ? And 
you are old enough now to think and understand 
for yourself — ” 

“ I sha’n’t die,” I interrupted, very coolly ; “ I 
was never in better health in my life,” swallowing 
down a half-sob in my throat, for his grave, loving 
words touched me more than I was at all willing 
he should see. 

He drew me suddenly closer to him. 

“ Oh, my sister, whom I have taken to love in 
the other little sister’s place, I can not hear you 
speak so. Now, while it is called to-day, give the 
first love of your fresh young heart to the God 
who has cared for you so tenderly all your life, 
who has placed your feet out of rough paths into 
pleasant places. Oh, Agatha, try and love Him, 
and be grateful to Him for all His goodness and 
tenderest compassion.” 

“ I wish I might, but what can I do ? How 
shall I get along with no one to teach me ? and 
where am I to begin ? I don’t know, indeed, what 


98 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


you want me to do, Paul,” I said, discontentedly. 
“ I don’t know how one can be good by just say- 
ing they will be. Pve tried it dozens and dozens 
of times, and I think I’m always a little worse 
after it.” 

“ Perhaps because you try in your own strength,” 
he said, softly. 

“ Perhaps,” I assented, waiting for him to say 
more. 

“ If we seek for strength aright,” he went on, 
“ it will be given us. If we ask in the humble 
spirit of a little child placing before its father all 
its wants and cares, we may hope for an answer to 
our petitions.” 

“ I know I should fail,” I said. 

“You can not, if you will have faith.” And 
then, very tenderly, “You will try, won’t you? 
You will begin to-night ? You will pray, not only 
for yourself, but for me ; it will help me so much 
to think of it.” 

I felt for the moment utterly miserable and 
wicked ! When had I, in this childlike spirit, 
asked, fervently and in faith, that I too might ob- 
tain the blessing ? When had I knelt by my bed 
and prayed for strength and guidance through the 
day ? I could not remember the time ! How 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 99 

could he ask for my prayers, when I so seldom 
prayed for myself? 

“I will tell you the truth, Paul,” boldly, finding 
my voice. “You shall know just how wicked I 
am. I don’t mean to do it, but in the morning I 
am late and sleepy and tired, and Jane hurries me 
so, and Aunt Martha dislikes it if I’m not down 
to breakfast punctually.” 

“ But your aunt has prayers most regularly, and 
there is one petition that surely all may join in — 
the ‘Our Father; ’ that is enough; the wants of 
a life-time are all in that.” 

“ Yes, I say that , it is true, but I don’t think of 
the words I am saying half the time,” I confessed, 
for now I was about it, I determined to make a 
clean breast of it ; “I am more likely thinking of 
you, and how bright the sky is, and how lovely it 
will be out in the woods or on the beach ; and I 
wonder if we will go sailing in the Scud, or if we 
shall have another famous clam-bake; and just 
about that time I hear ‘ amen,’ and I jump up to 
find my hat, and start off.” 

“ But the sun is not always shining,” he said, 
“ to tempt these roving thoughts of yours. It has 
rained twice this week.” 

“ Oh, yes, but then I am worse than ever, Paul, 


100 A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

for I am so angry that the sun does not shine, and 
I must stay in the house, that I surely could say 
no prayers then. Do tell me what to do ! ” 

“ Hasn’t your Bible told you, in all these years, 
Aggie ? ” he asked, reproachfully ; “ don’t you ever 
go there for advice and comfort ? ” 

“ But I don’t need advice or comfort,” I per- 
sisted ; “ I get on beautifully this way.” 

“ And you never feel in your heart a longing for 
something more than pleasure — an empty void, an 
unsatisfied want, a yearning for some friend nearer 
and dearer than all others, to counsel and guide 
you, and upon whose strong arm you can lean ? 
Almost every one, even a child, has felt this wish 
grow upon them sometimes.” 

Surely I had. How many lonely, sad hours I 
had passed before I knew him ! How many long- 
ings and fears had swept over my soul when I 
thought of the great life hereafter, and how sad and 
weird a song the waves sometimes sung to me ! 
Yes, I was alone, with no strong hand of love to 
guide me, save the wounded Hand always stretched 
forth in welcome, but which I had all my life re- 
jected. All for me in the future was indeed “ spec- 
tral and dim.” Why could I not say, truthfully, 
and from my heart, “ Save God and our Brother ? ” 


AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 101 


Why might I not clasp close in mine this rejected 
Hand, and feeling its God-given strength, lean, 
like Paul, on the arm of our dear Elder Brother? 

He was silent while I was thus questioning my- 
self, and we neither of us spoke for some time. 
His words had raised a great struggle and tempest 
in my heart. I kept my face turned away from 
him, so he might not see the tears which were 
slowly filling my eyes, and which I strove to keep 
back, but could not. 

“ Paul/' and I put my hand in his again, “ won’t 
you tell me what to do ? I have felt this want ; I 
feel it all the time ; I shall feel it more than ever 
when I am away from you. Won’t you tell me 
what I must do ? ” 

“ Do you wish to be truly a child of this dear 
Saviour who has borne so much for you, and who 
is always ready and willing to hear — far more will- 
ing than we are to ask ? ” 

I struggled with myself a minute or two ; then 
I said, choking down the sobs : 

“ Oh, I do, so much, so very much. And yet I 
always forget it ; I have before, and I shall do so 
again. But tell me what to do, and perhaps, when 
I am away from you, I shall remember it.” 

“ Then, above all other things, I would be strict 


102 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


and prayerful. Make it your rule each morning 
to ask God’s blessing upon the day before you be- 
gin it. Thank Him at night that His arm has 
been about you. Make it your duty and pleasure 
to set apart some portion of each day to read your 
Bible and ponder it well.” 

“ How can I ? ” I interrupted ; “ I shall go to 
school, and I shall have my lessons.” 

“ Then take one verse. Surely you can spend 
time for that. Take one verse each day, and think 
it over. It will be a comfort to you,” he said, and 
clasping me closer to him, “ Oh, Aggie, my sister, 
if I can only feel that your feet are in the right 
path ! I love you very much ; you must know 
how much ; and I can not bear to see you in your 
fresh young girlhood casting aside all that makes 
life beautiful here and Heaven certain hereafter. 
Promise me to-night, Aggie, you Avill do all this.” 

“ I will,” I said, desperately, throwing my arms 
about him ; “ I will truly try to be good, Paul ; 
but you must help me.” 

“God will help you, my sister. You can not 
doubt Him who has said for our great comfort the 
blessed words, ‘ Ask, and ye shall receive ; knock, 
and it shall be opened unto you.’ ” 

I looked around me, on the dark, moving waters, 


AGATHA LEE S INHERITANCE. 103 

and the bright moonlight gleaming over it on the 
long, dusky shore, with the white surf moaning 
and beating and falling back, with a long dull cry, 
on the sands at our feet ; and I thought, as I once 
had thought before, it was like eternity, and we 
two tarrying like waiting souls on its great, myste- 
rious shores. Life looked so little at that moment, 
and eternity so never-ending and unfathomable. 

“I will ask,” I said. “Paul, I will ask so 
earnestly every day of my life.” And when he 
leaned over and touched his lips to mine, I felt 
something like tears on my face ; and I wondered 
if they were for me, or the little sister who was 
laid under the violets so long ago. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


In the cool gray dawn we drove away the next 
morning. 

I rose early, so very early that I had to light my 
lamp ; for, remembering my promise to Paul the 
night before, I read my chapter and said my 
prayer. I don’t think the prayer amounted to very 
much, as it was more a yearning, simply expressed, 
that I might live and be good and come back to 
Hilton Lee, and always live there, and never go 
away. I would have added an ardent petition 
that Paul would never part with the Scud , only it 
seemed rather out of place. But it eased my 
heart somewhat of the load I had been carrying 
about with me, and was at all events a beginning. 

It looked very dark and gloomy when I came 
down-stairs to see the big trunks in the hall, and 
auntie and Jane bustling about like two black- 
draped nuns, in the spectral light, with their water- 
proofs on, and no breakfast laid in the great empty 
( 104 ) 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 105 


dining-room ; our voices sounding hollow enough 
in the dismantled house, as we went about talking 
very hurriedly to one another, and putting the last 
touches to our toilets, and stuffing forgotten things 
into the carpet-bags, as people will do at the last 
moment ; and then the village hack came rattling 
up to the door, and aunt said, “ Upon my word, 
this is very kind,” and Jane said, “Bless me, it’s 
young Mr. Endicott ; ” and with eyes filling in 
spite of themselves, I ran out as Paul jumped 
from the box, hurrying us in and helping the 
driver throw up the trunks as if they were 
feathers, and then bundling us all in— the two 
dogs, the satchels, and three females, making a sad 
jumble; then he let down the glass and banged 
the door to, saying “ good-byes ” all the time. 

“ I remembered my promise, Paul,” I found 
time to say, looking up into his face and winking 
very hard to keep the tears back. 

“ That’s a good girl ” — answering my smile — 
“ don’t forget it. Good-bye, my little friend ; 
Christmas will soon be around. God bless you, 
and keep us until we meet again.” 

He kissed me, shook hands with Aunt Martha, 
and the last thing we saw, as we drove rapidly 
away, was Paul with hat off waving us good-bye. 


106 


AG A THA LEES INHERITANCE. 


“ How kind it was of him to get up so early and 
see us off,” commented my aunt, placidly. 

“ I feel as if we were going to a funeral,” I said, 
bursting into tears. “ If everybody hated going 
home as I do, there’d be precious little traveling.” 
And I leaned back on my cushioned seat, feeling 
for the moment a Marie Antoinette walking up the 
guillotine steps, or Marie of Scotland laying her 
head on the fatal block ! What a goose I was, to 
be sure ! Evidently auntie thought so, for after 
allowing me ample time to redden my eyes most 
thoroughly, and damage my clean pique dress and 
cotton gloves, she proposed, as we had reached 
the boat, that I should wipe up and be presentable ; 
which request was instantly complied with, and 
half an hour after we were breakfasting most 
rationally on ham and eggs, with a long table full 
of passengers equally blear-eyed and hungry with 
ourselves, so that I had the pleasing consciousness 
that I was not the only one who looked as if the 
past night had been spent at a wake. And the 
boat creaked and groaned and tossed up and down, 
going farther than ever away from the pleasant 
shores which I felt would hereafter be always 
home to me, and the engine kept on wheezing and 
puffing as if it were overtaken by sudden asthma, 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 107 

each revolution of the wheel widening the dis- 
tance between me and my friend. To console 
myself and to please him, I took out my little 
Bible and read my chapter for the day, coiled up 
on the easy velvet cushions which ran around a 
large pillar or brace in the center of the saloon. 
Aunt had taken out the last new monthly and was 
finishing a story she had begun. She looked up 
once, and seeing me thus employed, stooped over 
and said, “You set me an example, Agatha, my 
dear,” with a smile which went to my heart, for I 
felt I did not deserve her praise — that I was doing 
it, not from a sense of duty or innate love of it, 
but simply to please Paul. 

“ If I should read the Gospels through before . 
Christmas,” I thought, “ I wonder what he would 
say to me then.” 

I don’t think I can ever find words to tell how 
much I hated that going home, so I’ll just leave it 
to imagination. Any. boy or girl who goes back 
to school after a paradise of a vacation, will under- 
stand the depth of my despair, and fill out the 
vacancy for me. And, feeling it a cross, I took it 
up desperately, and bore it, thinking of my prom- 
ise to Paul; and so in some way or another 
managed to get through the time and gain aunt’s 


108 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


most approving smile besides. It made me very 
comfortable and happy, and after I once got fairly 
settled at my books it all went on smoothly 
enough. It was only a little while to wait, after 
all ; and I found out, as Paul had told me, it left 
a very happy feeling in one’s heart if one tried to 
do right. The promise made on the sands that 
moonlight night was not forgotten. I kept up to 
it pretty regularly, always reading some portion of 
the Bible morning and evening, although some- 
times it was an alarmingly small share. But if I 
had felt at all like neglecting this duty, his letters 
would have been an all-sufficient reminder. He 
wrote me once from the sea-shore ; after that his 
letters dated from the seminary — always the same, 
cheerful, bright, boyish letters, just like himself, 
and never failing in each one to drop me a thought- 
ful word or bit of advice, which lingered in my 
heart, and would not be put aside. 

It was nearing Christmas time, and aunt and I 
were making great preparations for that festivity. 
Phil was coming home, and Paul had promised me 
he too would be with us. I kept myself very 
much in my own room about this time, locking my 
door and making my little preparations for the oc- 
casion with much secrecy. Aunt had very kindly 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 109 

given me leave to invite some of my school 
friends, and Phil was to bring home “one or two 
of the fellows,” as he called them ; so altogether 
the cottage would be quite full during the holiday 
week, and a good time we hoped to have of it. 
Every spare moment out of study hours I spent in 
work, often rising with the dull gray dawn, but 
not once forgetting my Bible. I had learned to 
rather like the practice, after nearly three months’ 
trial of it, and sometimes I felt the verses coming 
into my mind as a great assistance, if I felt 
troubled or cross, or things went awry, as was very 
apt to be the case in a school where a hundred odd 
girls ran riot. 


CHAPTER IX. 


The night before Christmas was a busy one for 
us. Phil came home in the morning train with 
“ two of the fellows,” as he had promised, though 
he was rather disappointed that one must be a 
“small boy;” for, as he wrote me, “Ned Carter 
couldn’t stir without his brother ; and as he wanted 
Ned, he was forced to bring Jack, too.” I took 
up my station at the window after breakfast, watch- 
ing for the depot stage, and when I saw it turning 
the corner x>f the street, I went out on the porch, 
and in spite of a light-falling snow, ran out to the 
gate bareheaded, to welcome them. I hadn’t seen 
my old playfellow in months, and his coming, to- 
gether with the grand Christmas party which 
auntie had promised me, was an event in my quiet 
life. 

Long before he got out of the lumbering old 
vehicle, I heard his “ Hurrah, Ag ! All right, lit- 
tle woman ?” And then jostling and pushing his 
way out, with the two boys following him, Master 
( 110 ) 


A GA THA LEE S INHERITANCE. 1 1 1 

Phil, with a huge paper parcel in his hand, made 
a descent upon me, kissing me twice, and rum- 
pling my hair all up, in his rapture. Then he pre- 
sented me to his friends after the most approved 
boyish fashion, thus : “ Here, Ag, hold this bundle 
for a fellow, will you ? Ned — Jack — this is my 
Cousin Ag.” And I looked up, and said, “ How 
do you do ? ” And the eldest boy took off his 
cap and made me a nice little bow, and said, “ Pret- 
ty well, I thank you. I’m Ned, as Phil has forgotten 
his manners to-day.” Then quite gallantly, “ Do 
let me hold these packages for you,” as Phil was 
throwing their worldly goods down from the stage, 
and piling my arms full, as I stood by his side. 

“ No you don’t ! ” cried Phil. “ I’ll take ’em 
myself, now. Come on, boys ” — and catching up 
all he could conveniently carry, he left me behind 
with Ned and Jack, and dashed into the house 
with snow-covered boots, to give the old lady a. 
“jolly good hug,” he said. 

Jack was a “ small boy ” indeed, with a round, 
good-natured, but utterly sheepish little face, and 
he was evidently too frightened to utter a word 
while we were walking up the path. Ned was 
older than Phil, and looked wide-awake. I thought 
I should like him far better than his shy little 


112 


AG A THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


brother ; and as for the girls who were invited to 
the Christmas party, I knew they’d just go wild 
over his curly head and big black eyes as full of 
mischief as ever they could be. We chatted up 
the path together very pleasantly, and when we 
entered the parlor, we found Phil on the floor by 
Aunt Martha’s chair, his arm around her waist, 
while he was filling her ears with more nonsense 
than she had heard in months. But she bore it all 
patiently from him. Phil always was auntie’s favor- 
ite, though I beg to assert I do not set that state- 
ment down in any malice aforethought. 

It never takes a very long time for boys and 
girls to get acquainted ; and we had business be- 
fore us. So after Phil had carried his packages 
and wrappings up-stairs, and after the boys had 
made themselves quite splendid with soap and 
water and Byron collars, and dinner was over, and 
Phil had ended his long talk with auntie, we went 
at our work in earnest. She had ordered home 
a plentiful supply of greens the day before, to- 
gether with a large, fine tree, and she gave us the 
dining-room to deck out and litter as much as 
we pleased; for I think nothing, not even Phil’s 
entreaties, would have beguiled that most notable 
housewife into giving us her pretty parlor, with its 


A GA THA LEE ’ 6 * INHERITANCE. 1 1 3 


velvet carpet and satin furniture ; and the dining- 
room was larger and better suited to our purpose 
every way, as Phil remarked ; and as for our pres- 
ents, we could put them on the tree the last thing 
Christmas night, and no one would be the wiser 
through the day. 

Then I sat down to the making of wreaths, 
while the boys hung them, and put all sorts of 
fanciful devices in green over the door, and then 
they brought in the big tree, firmly fastened to a 
large block of wood, and after covering the base 
with mosses and leaves, we decked it out with 
long streamers of parti-colored ribbon, little re- 
flectors, gilt nuts, and tiny candles of every hue 
and shade. Then where to stand it was the next 
question. 

“ I think it would look well in the center of the 
room,” remarked Phil, perched on a high step- 
ladder, with his feet tucked under him like a 
tailor, and a pensive air of reflection on his face ; 
“ but the table is in the way.” 

“ Push the table back,” said I. 

“ Oh, but we shall need it here to-morrow even- 
ing. Auntie says we shall have a fine supper, and 
there’s no place but this for the table,” argued 
Phil. 


8 


114 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

“ Let’s put it in the corner,” suggested Jack, 
shyly, and as if he would have enjoyed immensely 
going with it. 

But Ned nipped Jack’s little hope in the bud at 
once : 

“ It wouldn’t show off at all there,” he com- 
mented. “Put it in the bay-window.” 

“ Good for you,” cried Phil, hopping down from 
his elevation. “ We’ll do that thing at once, and 
then can walk around it and see everything. Here 
goes ! ” 

And the tree was dragged up to the window, 
and looked very grand there, as Ned had pre- 
dicted. And by the time we were through with 
our decorations, we had got tolerably well ac- 
quainted, and even Jack had thrown aside some 
of his bashfulness. I burned- with an ardent de- 
sire to tell Phil of the pretty comforters which I 
had knitted for his two friends ; but I wisely kept 
my own counsel. I would not give Paul a com- 
forter. He was too much of a man to wear such 
a thing. So I worked a lovely pair of slippers to 
bestow upon him, if he hadn’t forgotten all about 
his promise. And Aunt Martha had gone with 
me to select a dressing-case for him besides ; and 
I had got Phil one exactly like it, and they lay on 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 115 

my wardrobe shelf, and the door thereof was 
locked and the key kept safely in my pocket; but 
I took a peep at them nearly every day, to assure 
myself the silver tops of the bottles were bright 
and shining, as well as the plate on the lid, where 
the name^were engraven. 

“ I think,” I said that evening when the boys 
were gone to the city, to make a few last pur- 
chases, “ I do think, auntie, Paul will not come. 
He hasn’t written me a word ; and what shall I do 
with his dressing-case?” 

“ Send it to him,” she suggested, serenely. 

“ Oh, yes ! but I do wish he would come. I am 
so afraid he will not, for he has not written. And 
auntie, don’t you think I ought to give Ned and 
Jack something more than those little comforters? 
I’ve got plenty of money for Christmas, you told 
me ; and wouldn’t it be right, and only a proper 
compliment to Phil’s friends ? ” 

“ Decidedly proper,” she said ; “ what will you 
give ? ” 

“ There’s the trouble,” I answered, knitting my 
brows. “ How would books do ? ” 

“ But it is too late to buy anything now, Agatha. 
You should have mentioned it before.” 

Just then there was a ring at the door, and a 


116 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

few minutes afterward Jane brought in a small 
box wrapped in brown paper, marked “private,” 
and directed to “ Miss Martha Lee.” She smiled 
as she looked at the writing, and put it aside with- 
out examining it ; but there was something about 
it, just seen for an instant, that reminded me of 
Paul’s large, free hand. But I said not a word, 
only going back to my old distress, “ What shall I 
give the boys, auntie ? ” 

“I am sure I don’t know. We’ll set about 
thinking at once ; ” and then, as if a bright thought 
had struck her, “ How would knives do ? ” 

“Capitally; but we can’t get knives any more 
than books ! ” 

“ Oh, yes, we can ; leave it to me.” 

Some way aunt had been wonderfully kind to 
me ever since we came back from the Lee. I 
think, too, I tried to please her more, or, perhaps, 
it was Paul’s influence. But be that as it may, I 
certainly was nearer loving her than I had been 
in all the years gone before. 

“They must be very handsome knives, then,” 
I remarked, after a fit of meditation, “ for they 
will look small, anyway, by the side of the dress- 
ing-cases.” 

“But Ned and Jack are only friends of a day, 


A GA THA LEE ’ S' INHERIT A NCE. 1 1 7 

and I think it quite as much of a present as you 
ought to give. Besides, I have something for 
them.” 

“ Oh, have you ? Then we’ll do very well. And 
I’ve such pretty gifts for the girls, you know.” 

“1 think a Christmas party is very fine,” I 
ruminated, sitting down before the bright grate 
fire, and thinking it all over again. Aunt went 
back to her reading by the table, and I kept up my 
old fashion of dreaming. How much I longed to 
see Paul ! How I wondered if he were coming ! 
I had written him all about our preparations, and 
begged that he would drop in upon us. He had 
never written me that his mother had come back to 
the city, and I wondered if he would come just to 
see me ; and I also wondered, idly looking in the 
fire, and watching the long forks of flame that 
leaped up from the blazing coal, if Paul wanted to 
see me as much as I wanted to see him. I longed 
to tell him how I had tried to do as he wished, 
and to ask and receive further advice from him. 
And then, in spite of my merry anticipations for 
the morrow, a sober thought came into my heart 
of what this festival really meant which we were 
keeping. A memorial of the day on which the 
little Christ-child was laid in the manger, weak, 


118 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

helpless — human, divine — “born a child, yet God 
our. King!” It should be kept solemnly, I 
thought, instead of spending it in dancing and 
amusement. I wondered how Paul would think 
it should be kept; I longed to ask him. Aunt 
Martha had told me it was a happy time, and 
should be a joyously held festival in all lands ; and 
she gave me such a pretty little book to read, 
about the Christmas-trees in Germany, and that 
was the way I came to beg her to give me one, 
and how she was so quick to grant my request. I 
thought little German children must have very 
happy homes, if all I had read of them were true. 
And it was such a sweet custom to keep up — it 
was such a sweet song to ring through the world, 
of “peace and good-will to men.” 

How could one feel other than joyous on Christ- 
mas-day ? And looking into my own heart I saw 
much more happiness than used to rest there. 
Jane said I was taming down, and twice that day 
Phil had asked where all my old fun had gone. 
What was it coming over my spirit that was chang- 
ing me so? Was it this peace and good-will 
which came with the happy Christmas time, or was 
it Paul’s influence and power over me, transform- 
ing me more into the likeness of a child whom he 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. H9 

could love ? Or was it the love of Christ shining 
in upon my darkened soul, and filling me with a 
true desire to be good, which made life seem a 
brighter thing than it used ? 

I looked at aunt quietly reading under the soft 
light of her Argand lamp, and thought our own 
home was nearly as lovely as those pleasant Ger- 
man homes of which I had been reading. Two 
years before I almost hated everything in the 
house, and felt it only a dismal, gloomy place to 
me. Now it seemed pleasant and home-like, per- 
haps for the very first time in my life. I looked 
at the great, ruddy fire, quivering all over with 
flashes of lambent flame, and thought how cold 
and still and white all was without, and within 
how cheerful and warm. The heavy curtains 
drawn over the windows shut out the cold and the 
night. The light of lamp and flickering fire-gleam 
sent all the shadows fleeing away. Home, as never 
before, seemed a happy resting-place for my un- 
quiet little soul. I thought I had been ungrateful 
to aunt. I had never scarcely given her a kind 
thought or word in return for all her care of me ; 
but I would set about it that very night. I would 
begin the New Year, so close at hand, with far 
different feelings than I had ever begun it before. 


120 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


I had been trying in my own strength too long — 
now I would try in the Master’s, as Paul had told 
me. I would begin the New Year aright. I 
would ask God’s blessing upon it that very 
Christmas night. There could be no more fit time. 

“ Agatha,” said Aunt Martha, laying aside her 
book, and breaking in upon my reverie, “ are you 
dreaming over the Christmas party yet ? ” 

I started and gathered together my scattered 
thoughts. Over the sea, at other little festive 
gatherings like that which we hoped the morrow 
would bring for us — to Paul — to the sweet Christ- 
mas carols that children were singing here, as in 
other lands. How my thoughts had been flying 
hither and thither, like birds of passage, between 
other worlds and this little one of home. 

I said, “ No, aunt,” quite gravely, and looking 
into the fire again with all my might. “ I was 
thinking of so many things, I hardly know which 
to tell you first. But I think to-night my heart is 
more full of Christmas peace than Christmas par- 
ties. Aunt, do you know I am very sorry I have 
been such a care and trial to you all my life.” 

She started with surprise as I spoke thus, and 
then said very soberly, “ You have been a care to 
me, and sometimes, I suppose, a trial ; but lately, 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 121 


Agatha, I think you have tried to be a different 
girl, and I am more rejoiced than I can tell you 
that it is so. I can safely say you are a comfort 
to me now, and I look forward to a happy, pleas- 
ant life with you in the years to come.” 

“ Paul macfe me promise to be good,” I an- 
swered, in a low voice, the blood rushing over my 
face as I spoke, “ and I have tried so hard to be 
so for his sake. I wanted his praise — I wanted his 
affection — but do you know, to-night, aunt, I 
think I have been all wrong, and I shall only have 
to begin over again. I think I must try not so 
much in my own strength, as in the strength of 
Jesus. I am all wrong. Don’t you think I am ? ” 

“ I think one can never be very far from right,” 
she said kindly, “ when one feels as you do to- 
night, Agatha. I think perhaps you are nearer 
Him than you ever were before.” 


CHAPTER X. 


Christmas morning dawned at last. We heard 
the bells ringing out merry chimes from the great 
Cathedral tower in the city, faint and soft, like 
pealing, far-off fairy bells ; and yet so clear and 
sweet that it woke me, too, in the cold, gray dawn, 
and I sat up in bed and listened, until my heart 
longed to join in the glad cry of “ Unto us a Child 
is born; unto us a Son is given.” 

I got up and looked out of the window. The 
icicles hung dripping over the panes in long, crys- 
tal pendants, and the ground was white with 
newly-fallen snow. Hurrying along the streets 
were groups of dark figures, men and women go- 
ing on into the town while it was yet dark to see 
the new-born Saviour laid in the manger, and to 
live over again in spirit that blessed birthday 
which dawned for the great universal world 
eighteen hundred years ago. After all, one could 
not laugh at their devotion or eagerness to see 
( 122 ) 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 123 


the little waxen doll, which was to them a repre- 
sentation of Christ their King. It was a sweet 
old custom to thus adore their Lord. I did 
not believe in doing it myself, that way ; but there 
was another. There was no reason why I, a Prot- 
estant child, should not reverently bow before the 
great All- Father, and thank Him for the gift of 
His dear Son. I knelt there, right in the window, 
with the gilded cross of the great Cathedral spire 
showing dimly through the mists of early morning, 
and looking upon it as the only spar to which I 
could cling, I prayed, perhaps as never before in 
my life, so earnestly and solemnly that a blessing 
might be given me — even unto me — for the sake 
of this dear Son, who laid down His kingly crown, 
and took upon Himself the nature of a poor child 
of earth, for our endless comfort and salvation. 
Somehow when I had ended my petitions, the 
cross seemed to come out from the shadows and 
shine for me more clearly, and Paul’s words whis- 
pered themselves over again in my heart, “ Ask 
and ye shall receive.” And then, through the dim 
haze, one little ray of the uprising sun just flashed 
and rested upon the huge gilded emblem of our 
faith, as well as of the worshipers gathered be- 
low ; and I took it for a sign, a good omen to me, 


124 AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


that some day over my darkened soul the night- 
shadows would flee away, and God’s blessed sun- 
light rest there, as upon this cross uplifted high on 
which my eyes were fixed. 

I had never such a happy beginning of any 
Christmas-day before. I went back to my little 
table, and dressing hastily, took up my Bible, and 
read all the gracious promises concerning this 
coming of our King, and the great names He 
should bear — “ Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty 
God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince ot 
Peace” — and then folding my hands over the 
page, I cried with the words of the prophet stir- 
ring my heart, “Ah, Lord God, behold I can not 
speak, for I am a child ! ” and the gracious answer, 
“ I am with thee to deliver thee,” I felt was given 
to me, as to him, if I but kept in the right way. 

All these things sobered yet made me very 
happy, and when the bell rang for breakfast, I was 
so wrapped in my thoughts that I came down with 
a very preoccupied air, and forgot to say “ Merry 
Christmas ” until Phil, who was concealed behind 
the door, dashed out, and with one fell swoop bore 
down upon me, with a boisterous cry of “ Merry 
Christmas ! Merry Christmas, Ag ! Where are 
your wits ? — wool gathering, eh ? Don’t you know 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 125 


it is Christmas-day ? ” And then a great chase we 
had through the house, making it ring with Christ- 
mas greetings, and bringing the boys and Aunt 
Martha down to the breakfast-room to see what 
mad frolic was going on. 

“Aggie was putting on airs,” Phil exclaimed, 
“ and making believe she was a grown-up young 
woman, and too old to play at Christmas romps. 
Do you know, auntie, she absolutely forgot to 
‘ wish me,’ as we used to say, though she caught 
me behind the door, where I had hidden for the 
express purpose.” 

“ There have been lots of little ragamuffins under 
my window,” said Ned, “wishing me ‘Merry 
Christmas for a cent ! 9 ” 

“ Did you give it to them ? ” 

“ Of course I did. It was real fun to toss out 
the pennies in the snow, and watch them dig- 
ging into it with their dirty little hands ; and then 
such a shout as they would set up if they found 
it ! ” 

“ I think Christmas-day is good fun,” said Phil, 
pensively buttering his buckwheats. “ It’s so 
much nicer to be here than at school. Isn’t it, 
Jack?” 

Jack gave a smothered “ yes,” which sounded as 


126 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


if he were choked with Christmas “ fixins ” in ad- 
vance, and then retired permanently behind his cof- 
fee-cup. He was the most pitiable little specimen of 
shyness I had ever seen, and his big brother Ned 
was just the reverse. Phil and he kept up an ani- 
mated conversation, intermixed with suppressed 
bursts of laughter, and communications of appar- 
ently immense importance, and didn’t seem to no- 
tice this little innocent at all. So, as my heart was 
full of all manner of good resolutions, I just de- 
voted myself to Jack, and felt I was really very self- 
sacrificing and kind. And when I went down to the 
parlor, looking quite the “mistress of Hilton Lee,” 
as Jane foolishly told me, I scarcely knew myself 
for the same doubting, fearing child, who waited for 
the sunshine to gild the cross in the dusky gloom 
of that breaking day. I felt more fine than ever 
when I found myself alone in the room, now quite 
dazzling and elegant with -the chandeliers both 
lighted, and I danced up and down before the 
long mirror, and thought nothing could be finer 
than parties and money, and then quite lost in ad- 
miration of the unusually beautiful vision in the 
glass, I went on enlarging my castle, dreaming of 
the time when I should give grander and more 
elegant fetes than this in a home of my own, and be 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 127 


a woman grown. It would only be a few years. Oh, 
how I longed for the time to come. Life looked 
very fair and bright to me, now that my ship was 
safely come home to me from over the seas. I felt 
that all the world lay before me, and to my igno- 
rant sight it seemed a mere nothing for me to place 
my feet upon, and cleave out any path I chose — a 
very different thing from the work-a-day life of 
most young girls. An enchanted land was it to 
me, into which I already tried to stray in imagina- 
tion, and as I looked at myself in the glass, my 
cheeks burned and my eyes danced with eagerness 
to begin the battle of life in earnest. I was so 
lost in the might of this great thought — riches, 
grandeur, fine dress, and unusual display — that I 
never heard the door swing softly open, and a foot- 
step that I was longing to hear, fall noiselessly on 
the thick carpet. 

“ It is a great thing to be rich,” I said aloud, 
smoothing do^n the ruffles of my pink silk. “ Oh, 
such a fine, fine thing to be rich ! ” 

“ Is this my little friend of the beach ? ” asked 
a kind, grave voice. And there, looking in the 
glass, close by my side, stood Paul — my real, flesh 
and blood, veritable Paul, and no trick of the be- 
guiling mirror ! 


128 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

With a cry of delight I seized both his hands 
and drew him away from the glass. I forgot that 
he must have seen me in my vain, delighted in- 
dulgence of pride; I forgot everything but that he 
was here ! 

“ The very same Captain Paul,” I cried. “ He 
has not changed a bit, and he has kept his prom- 
ise, as he always used. Oh, how glad, how very 
glad I am ! ” 

He smiled down upon me, smoothing back my 
hair, and saying with his old fondness : 

“Yes, I have not forgotten I was to play an im- 
portant part in this great first party. But tell me, 
for I don’t quite know my little friend in all this 
grandeur, can it really be the same little brown 
Gipsy who ate clams on the beach with me one 
summer day, and with her own hands pulled them 
from the ashes? I don’t know her at all.” 

“ Oh, but it is the very same,” I cried, clapping 
my hands, upon which, for the first time in my 
life, Jane had drawn a pair of white kid gloves. 

“ I am glad,” he said gravely. “ I thought she 
was lost to me forever, and Miss Agatha Lee, a 
worldly-wise heiress, had stepped into her place. 
I am glad I was deceived.” 

“ But you were not,” I said repentantly, a 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 129 


crimson flush of shame dyeing my cheeks and brow, 
when I remembered how he had found me, and 
how very likely he had heard my thoughts, which 
were spoken aloud. “You were not deceived, 
dear Paul ! I have forgotten myself, and am lost 
in my old vanity and worldliness, ” and I burst into 
vexed tears. “ I told you how it would be ! Come, 
and take me out again, Paul, for I must always be 
Pliable, and you will be forever taking me out of 
Despond ! ” 

I dropped down upon a seat at his feet, just as 
I used to do in that pleasant by-gone summer, 
when I took him for teacher and guide in all 
things, and leaning my head upon my hands, I 
burst into one of my passionate fits of weeping. 
Into my heart all the sorrow of a wasted three 
months was gathered. I had tried so hard to do 
right — to please Paul — to show him when I met 
him again, how many steps I had taken toward the 
Wicket ; and here was the end of it ! That he of 
all others should catch me in such an absorbed 
state of vain-glory and pride! For a little while 
he let me sob out all my shame there alone, while 
he walked up and down the room. I did not dare 
look up or speak. I forgot my silk dress and 
white gloves. I forgot that it was nearly time for 
9 


130 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

the company to arrive, and my eyes would be red 
and my nose damaged. I only knew that Paul 
had come, and was disappointed in me. It was a 
very hard thought. 

Finally he stopped his walk; came back to me 
and sat down by my side, quietly taking my hand 
in his, and drawing me to him. 

“ Do not cry any more,” he said, in his old, 
kind way. “ I am more glad than I can tell you 
to get my little sister back again." 

“And I am so glad you are come," I sobbed; 
“ only I had hoped to tell you such good things of 
myself. I have tried so hard, I had hoped you 
would be pleased." 

And this was the bitterest thought of all, that I 
had failed to please him. 

“ Did you forget what I told you about trying 
in your own strength ? " he asked tenderly. 

“ I thought of it this morning when I heard the 
chimes," I whispered, “ and remembered what the 
bells were ringing for." 

“ But you forgot it again to-night ? You forgot 
all the poverty and lowliness of His birth; you 
were only glad that you were rich ! You did not 
think of the King who laid down His crown, and 
became, for your sake as well as mine, very poor. 


A GA THA LEE ’ 5 INHERITANCE. 131 

You did not think to ask Him for strength, who 
died to save you ! ” 

“ I told you how it would be ! ” I acknowledged 
desperately. “ I had indeed forgotten it all.” 

“ Then you have only to try again,” he said in 
his old kind way. “ Our whole life, no matter how 
much we try, can only be one long succession of 
failures. But we are forgiven if we ask in His 
name, even more than the seventy times seven with 
which we are commanded to forgive our brother. 
And now we must dry these eyes, and smooth 
these disordered curls. I am afraid you will 
hardly be the fine lady you were a half hour ago, 
to receive your guests.” 

I looked up appealingly, and he went on : 

“ Besides, I want to be very merry with you all 
to-night, and we must not spoil the pleasure of 
this first p^rty. Run away now, and we will have 
our good long talk another time.” 

“ But you will not be here to-morrow,” I said, 
trying to choke down my sobs, “ and I can never 
get along without you to direct me.” 

“ Yes, you can, if you try not so much to please 
Paul, and more to please God.” 

“ I know,” I said, repentantly, “ I thought last 
night — and told auntie so — that I was all wrong, 


132 


AG A THA LEE'S LATHE RI TA NCE. 


and only had to begin over again. I have been 
all this while trying to be good for your sake, and 
because of my promise to you, when I might have 
known I would fail.” 

“ If you would only govern every action and 
simple thought by three little words, Aggie.” 

“ What are they ? ” I asked. 

“ ‘ For Jesus’ sake.’ Say them over to yourself 
when you want to deny yourself any selfish pleas- 
ure, when you curb your hasty temper, or check 
the thoughtless words upon your lips ; only say it 
softly over in your heart, and you will find your- 
self strong to overcome almost any temptation and 
evil. But we must finish this talk some other 
time, sister mine. Go away now, and make your- 
self ‘ Miss Lee ’ again.” 

“ Don’t ! ” and I put up my hand beseechingly. 
“ Don’t say that, or I won’t have any heart to 
greet a soul.” 

“ But you must — and that reminds me, you 
haven’t given me my Christmas greeting. Come, 
Agatha, a Merry Christmas to you, and a Happy 
New Year, and may God give you strength and 
grace to spend the opening year in His service.” 

I clasped my arms around his neck, and gave 
“ a Merry Christmas ” in return for his. 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 133 


“ Is there anything wrong in a party ? ” I asked 
timidly, for I longed to have my doubts settled. 
“ Is there anything wrong in being, gay, and in 
having a tree loaded full of presents upon this 
day ? ” 

“ Not to my way of thinking,” he said. “You 
shall see me as merry as if I were ten, if you will only 
put some smiles upon your own face, and be happy 
and enjoy everything that is right and reasonable 
for you to enjoy ; but, remember, for all this pleas- 
ure, for all these good gifts, there is but One to 
whom you may present the thank-offering.” 

“ And you will come to-morrow, dear Paul,” I 
entreated, “ and begin right here, where we leave 
off to-night, and you will tell me wherein I have 
failed, and how I may be better.” 

“We will talk it all over then,” he said, kissing 
my cheek ; and so I ran up to my own room, and 
greatly dismayed Jane by throwing off my soiled 
gloves, and resolving to go without any; then 
bathing my eyes, and giving a little brush to my 
disordered hair, I went down the stairs just as I 
saw the hall-door opening, and a bevy of young 
boys and girls entering the parlor. 


CHAPTER XI. 


It was nearly an hour after this before I could 
get around by Paul’s side, and slip my hand into 
his. He was talking to Aunt Martha very 
earnestly, and Phil was standing by his side, ap- 
parently as much interested as even I could have 
desired him to be. “ That Paul,” as he had contempt- 
uously called him, was giving a most animated 
description of a pull in a shell-boat between the 
two rival factions which always exist in college, 
and Phil was listening with the most absorbed face 
in the world, for he had all my love of the water 
and boating generally. / Paul looked up when he 
felt my hand in his, and stopped to tell me the 
Scud was being overhauled, and having a fine new 
coat of paint; and just then little Jack came up 
in the most timid and beseeching manner to re- 
mind me of my promise, and “ there had been two 
games, and I had forgotten all about it, he knew,” 
and Aunt Martha, turning around on her stool, 
( 134 ) 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 135 


struck up a lively tune, and the boys and girls be- 
gan “ sides ” again. 

“ Don’t bother, Jack,” I said, “ I’ll go in a mo- 
ment.” And Jack slunk away as if he had com- 
mitted an enormity in reminding me. 

“ I must play, I suppose,” I whispered to Paul ; 
“ I promised little Jack I would choose him, 
but I am so sorry. I would much rather stay here 
by you.” 

“ By no means,” he answered quickly. “ Let 
me see you with the others, and wearing just as 
bright a face as they do. And the poor little boy 
looks just now like an escaped convict. What is 
the matter ? ” 

“ She is such a goose,” said Phil. “ She prom- 
ised to play with him because he was afraid no 
one would notice him, and he felt very badly about 
it, and Ag was sorry for him. Wasn’t she silly, 
Mr. Endicott ? ” 

“ I think she was very nice,” said Paul, patting 
my head, “ and I think she forgot herself when 
she said to her guest a minute ago, ‘ don’t bother,’ 
—didn’t she ? ” 

Aye ! just as she was always forgetting herself ; 
and I dashed away with my usual impulse, caught 
the hapless Jack, who had retired from the world 


136 AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 


behind a high-backed chair, and dashed him into 
the game before he really knew what I was about. 

“I didn’t mean any harm, Jack,” I whispered, 
“when I sent you away; pray forgive me,” and, 
rosy with smiles, he and I soon forgot all the tem- 
porary blights of the evening. And then there 
was another game directly that one was finished, 
which Ned and I carried on in unparalleled style, 
we thought ; and soon after Paul and Phil disap- 
peared, and when this was ended, a great hush and 
expectancy fell on each one as auntie rose, and at 
a given signal from some one within, she threw open 
the folding doors between the hall and dining-room, 
and the great tree standing in the bay-window, 
glittering with presents, and one blaze of light, 
was displayed to our view. Paul and Phil stood 
each side of it, and then my aunt requested us all 
to walk into the room, and receive our presents. 

There was no use in trying to walk in dignified 
couples, two and two, like fine grown-up ladies and 
gentlemen, but all dashed in, helter skelter, in the 
most promiscuous manner, and such a chatter and 
chorus of voices arose that for a few minutes it 
was a miniature Babel indeed. And after all, the 
good nature with which we elbowed, and jostled, 
and stepped on one another’s toes, was quite as 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 137 

pleasant as if we had attempted older airs and 
graces, though Paul did threaten us with the Riot 
Act. 

Every one, girl as well as boy, had a present to 
receive from Paul’s hand, which he gave with some 
pleasant little words, while Phil busied himself 
with stripping the tree, and handing the various 
gifts to him. All were marked with the name of 
the recipient, and “ From Agatha Lee with a 
Merry Christmas.” Truly auntie had done my 
work well ! After all, the thought would come ex- 
ultingly — it was a very fine thing to be rich ! I 
felt like a Lady Bountiful indeed as each gave me 
an opinion of his or her gift. 

“ Now, you little darling ! ” said one, “ you knew 
I wanted that reticule ; you heard me tell Fan the 
other day mamma would not give me one.” And 
“You’re too lovely for anything, Aggie! ’’broke 
in another ; “ nothing could have pleased me more 
than this fan.” “ Do let me get at her,” chimed 
in a third ; “ how could you possibly know I 
wanted this ? ” 

“A little bird whispered it to me,” I said, with 
the air of a Princessa. 

“ The praise of the world is very sweet,” said 
Paul, dryly, at my elbow. 


138 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE . 

I started and blushed, and for the second time 
that evening felt a keen pang of shame. I almost 
wished he had not come to spoil my pleasure that 
way, and then hastily and confusedly remember- 
ing how plainly he could read all my thoughts in 
my tell-tale face, I stooped over one of the girls, 
pretending to arrange her sash, but before I could 
say a word he was back by Phil’s side again, open- 
ing the dressing-case, which auntie handed him in 
my name. He looked, then turned around with 
real pleasure flushing his face, and began to join 
his thanks with the others. 

“Do withhold yours,”. I said, trying to speak 
coldly ; “ the praise of the world is too intoxicat- 
ing by far, Paul ! ” 

Now I suppose some evil spirit was hovering 
about me, tempting me to this speech, for it was 
furthest from my heart to wound him ; above all 
others in the world I cared most for pleasing him 
— but in an utterly unaccountable manner the 
words popped into my mind, and I said them. 
The instant they were spoken I regretted it. 

“ The little sister I buried so long ago would 
never have spoken to me like that,” he said, bend- 
ing over his case, pretending to arrange its con- 
tents, and not looking up at me again. 


A GA THA LEE ’ 5 INHERITANCE. 139 

I could have burst into tears over the trick my 
unhappy temper was forever playing me, but some- 
thing — an undefined spirit of opposition, suddenly 
made me turn to Ned, who was whispering, thanks 
for his gift, and then in a few minutes we dis- 
covered that Paul had started a fine game of 
“ Stage Coach,” and we went with the others to 
beg a seat inside ; and from “ Stage Coach ” it 
went on to “ Blind Man’s Buff,” and to “ Forfeits,” 
which were made particularly funny with Paul for 
judge; and by the time supper was announced, 
all were pretty well acquainted with Mr. Endicott ; 
and Ned declared he was a “ perfect brick,” if he 
was going to be a clergyman; and Phil had been 
made quite happy by sundry promises of free sail- 
ing in the Scud the following summer. As for me, 
I had not spoken to my well-beloved friend since 
my unlucky answer to his thanks. He came up to 
me with an ice, and wanted to know very gravely, 
but with laughter in his eye, “ if I could tell him 
where he might find little Aggie Lee.” 

“ In the old place,” I said, taking the plate he 
offered me, and feeling the deepest sense of humili- 
ation. “ She is in Despond again, Paul, but she 
will try and come out safely.” 

“And she will always come out safely,” he 


140 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


whispered, “if she will find the right hand to lead 
her.” 

And then with one of his most encouraging 
smiles, he left me to answer Aunt Martha’s call. 

I never quite remember how we got through the 
rest of that evening. I was giddy and faint with 
the unusual excitement, the heat, and the noise, 
and I saw only the crowd of merry boys and girls ; 
heard the music crashing, and the lights going 
round and round, and then suddenly they were all 
dashed out, and in the great darkness I stretched 
out both hands, crying, “ Paul,” and fell to the 
floor. And when I opened my eyes again, the 
house was still ; my hands and face felt wet and 
cold, and I lay on my own bed in my own room, 
and aunt and Paul stood over me. There was a 
sickly smell of camphor on my handkerchief, and 
when I tried to raise my head, I felt giddy and 
faint again. 

“ What has happened ? ” I asked. “ Where are 
the girls ? ” And then relapsing into Worldly 
anxieties, “ Auntie, my dress will be 1 done 
spoiled,’ as Rosy says.” 

“ Never mind your dress, Pussy. Do you feel 
better now ? ” 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 141 


“ What was the matter with me ? ” I asked ; and 
Paul, stooping down, kissed my forehead, and 
said, “ Poor little thing. I think to-day has been 
too much for her,” and was going to leave the 
room wLen I called him back. 

“ Stay,” I said, “ Paul, until I ask you one ques- 
tion. Do you think you can ever love me as well 
as you used, after to-night ? ” 

“ Better, I fancy,” he said, “ little sister. Why ? ” 
But I answered his question only by asking an- 
other : 

“You told me once to pray for you, Paul. 
Won’t you pray for me, instead ? I need it — in- 
deed I do ! ” 

“ And I always remember my little sister, then,” 
he whispered kindly, “ if at no other time. May 
I come to-morrow, Miss Lee, if Aggie is better? ” 
“ Aggie will be quite well, I hope, by to-mor- 
row,” Aunt Martha answered, “ and we shall all 
want to see you.” And I turned my face toward 
the wall, and shut my eyes, and the hot tears 
which I could not keep back, slowly trickled down 
my cheek ; and Paul leaning over me, kissed them 
softly away, saying, “ Good-night ; ” and when he 
was gone, Jane came in, and very gently took off 


142 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

the famous pink silk and hung it away ; “ and 
quite a spectacle to behold, it was,” she lamented ; 
and then I was so tired, I was glad to lay my 
head back upon my pillow and sink into troubled 
dreams. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Aggie certainly was better the next morning, 
as Aunt Martha prophesied, and a good laugh did 
I have over my delicate nerves while Jane was 
dressing my hair. I didn’t feel well, though, 
when we had ended the hair-dressing and our con- 
fidential little chat about the party. I had made 
Jane very happy, too, with a fine new gown, the 
exact shade of maroon she most ardently admired, 
so we were very good friends that morning, and 
she created an unusual amount of ringlets in con- 
tradistinction to the very scant pattern of the day 
before. I was tired when she had ended, though 
I did not feel badly enough to keep my room, and 
when the breakfast-bell sounded I put a shawl 
about my shoulders, and went down. I was a lit- 
tle giddy at first, and it seemed as if the floors 
were taking a slow waltz with the walls and ceil- 
ings as I walked. I got in the hall, when I re- 
membered my Bible, and turned back. I couldn’t 
manage the chapter very well with my weak head, 

( 143 ) 


144 A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


so I just opened it anywhere, and read as Paul 
had bidden me, one verse ; and it happened to be 
this : 

“ For godly sorrow worketh repentance to sal- 
vation not to be repented of ; but the sorrow of 
the world worketh death.” 

And then I put back the Book in its place, and 
went down to breakfast, thinking over my verse as 
I walked along. Paul had said truly, one verse 
gave me enough to think over. 

“You didn’t see your presents last night, Ag,” 
said Phil, as we gathered around the table. “You 
were too busy giving us ours. ” 

“ And too sick to enjoy it, if you had seen 
them,” said Jack, with the utmost sympathy in 
his little face. “ I’m real sorry you fainted away.” 

“ It didn’t hurt me,” I answered. “ I think I 
shall be all right after breakfast.” 

“We had an elegant time!” remarked Ned, 
with slow enjoyment, sipping his coffee. “ I say, 
Phil, it’s rather rough on a fellow now to go back 
to school.” 

“ Decidedly rough,” Phil agreed, and then, as 
I didn’t feel like leaving my seat, Phil proposed 
my presents should be brought to me. 

“ If the mountain wouldn’t come to Mahomet, 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 145 

you know,” laughed Ned, as he went up to the 
bay-window with Phil, and presently both came 
back with hands well filled. 

“ Such a display ! ” Ned declared. “ It was only 
fair, however, that I should have something my- 
self, who had given away so much,” as he handed 
me first of all Aunt Martha’s gift. It was just like 
her ! An exquisite little Bible, bound in blue velvet, 
with gilt clasps and edges, and my name on the 
outside in tiny gilt letters. 

“ It was just what I wanted, only much too fine 
for every-day use, auntie,” I said. 

Nevertheless she would like to see it on my 
dressing-table, and know that I read it every day. 

“ I have watched you some time, my dear,” she 
went on smilingly, “ and I think you deserve this.” 

“ I don’t deserve anything ! ” I answered under 
my breath. “ Oh, auntie,” thinking of the verse 
which I had been lingering over in thought, “ what 
good has my Bible-reading done me? ” 

My eyes were filling with tears, which little 
Jack saw, and skillfully sought to divert my mind. 

“ Show her our present, Ned,” he said ; then in 
an ecstatic aside to me, “ Oh, it’s lovely, Aggie ! ” 
“Here it is,” said Ned. “Only the third of it 
is mine, for we three — Phil, Jack, and I — put all 
10 


146 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

our capital together, and made a * big thing * of it, 
Jack thinks.” 

It certainly was a big thing, all gilt and glass on 
a marble slab, with a little pearl shell in the center 
like a b£.sin, into which, he explained, I was to 
drop my jewels (I thought, with a solemn chuckle, 
of my one carnelian ring, and resolved I’d try the 
effect that very night) ; and then on each side, in 
dainty wicker stands of silver gilt, stood richly- 
cut bottles. “We did the thing up brown,” ex- 
plained Phil ; “ we put cologne in one, and bay- 
rum in the other.” 

“That was Jack,” confessed Ned, blushing a 
little. “You might know it was Jack; that was 
his part of the present. We wanted him to get 
‘ Lubin,’ but he wouldn’t do it ; he said it cost too 
much ! ” 

Jack looked as if he would particularly have en- 
joyed going through the floor that minute, but 
he said in a voice which was unmistakably tremu- 
lous : “ It was only because I wanted to divide and 
give Miss Lee a new Hymn-book, and I couldn’t 
do both.” 

“ And very kind it was, Jack,” said Aunt Mar- 
tha warmly. “ I shall like the little book very 
much, for mine is quite shabby, and prize it all the 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 147 


more since I know it required some self-denial to 
purchase it.” 

Then Ned had all sorts of odd little gifts from 
the girls to show me. There was nothing of much 
value, yet each one had hung some little remem- 
brance on the tree for me ; and it was very pleas- 
ant looking them over with the boys, and Aunt 
Martha too ; and putting in remarks occasionally, 
with notes of admiration as well as interrogation. 
They came to the end finally, and there was noth- 
ing from Paul! I didn’t want a present, for the 
sake of the present , I said to myself, my eyes fill- 
ing with tears. I only wanted his remembrance ; 
but I deserved to be neglected. 

And then Phil cried out, “ Oh, we forgot Mr. 
Endicott ! Ag, he — ’’and then at a look from 
Aunt Martha, stopped. 

“ When Aggie goes into the parlor,” she said, 
“ she will see her friend has not forgotten her.” 

And then I could hardly wait for prayers to be 
over that I might go and see what Paul had left 
for me, and, although I tried to settle my thoughts 
upon the reading, and the prayers which followed 
it, I found when it was ended I had as usual to 
reproach myself with inattention. And then, 
escorted by the boys, and bundled up in my shawl, 


148 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

I went on into the parlor, which Jane had already 
restored to its usual order, and looked around. 

“ She don’t see it ! ” said Phil, delightedly. 
“ She don’t see it at all ! ” 

I thought it would be a book — possibly a Bible 
— so I looked quickly at the tables ; no, there was 
nothing new there. I walked up to the mirror, 
and laughed as I caught a glimpse of myself in it, 
when I thought of last evening. The pink silk 
dress was not more changed than I. I was pale ; 
dark rings lay about my eyes and mouth, and I 
was ready to cry at any moment, and I turned 
away, about to say I should give up the search, 
when my eye met Paul’s — not his own, veritable, 
trusty blue eyes, changing from grave scrutiny to 
merry mood — but wearing the tender, loving ex- 
pression I liked best of all others to see resting 
there. I started quickly — it seemed so like his 
real presence with me — then I sat down on the 
floor, and looked at it admiringly. It stood on 
the marble pier below the mirror (did he think I 
would find it there' more readily than in any other 
place ?), in a sort of frame-like easel, with a dark 
velvet casing around the face. It was just the 
head and shoulders, painted exquisitely on por- 
celain. I didn’t utter the thought of my heart 


AG A THA LEE'S INHERITANCE . 149 


that first time I saw him, “ He is like Alcibiades.” 
I simply said, “ It is Paul,” and was very happy. 
And then I wondered how he could have given it 
to me, when I had been so cold and thoughtless the 
night before, and wounded him, I knew, so deeply. 
I looked into the tranquil face, wearing its old, 
serene smile, and it almost seemed to say to me, 
“ I love you now more than ever, little sister.” 
“Yes he was kind and forgiving, and he would come 
and see me to-night,” I said, “and I would tell him 
all my perplexities, and he would clear up the 
doubts which beset my path, and put me upon the 
right road again.” Yes, I could afford to wait 
now, for hereafter I would always have him near 
me, and it was the next best thing to hearing him 
speak to look into the frank, loving face, and al- 
ways meet the same welcoming smile. Yes, Paul’s 
was a gift indeed, and who but he would have 
thought of it ? 

That day aunt, Jane, and the boys were unusu- 
ally kind to me, but I found myself longing many 
times for night and Paul to come. I could not 
some way get back into feeling well and bright as 
I had felt before the party. I had really never 
been sick in my life, so I bore with ill-disguised 
impatience the nervous pain about my head, and 


150 AG A THA LEE " S INHERI TANCE. 

the listless feeling which I had not been able to 
rid myself of since my fainting the night before. 
Aunt said the unusual excitement had been too 
much for me, and advised rest, and then, as I had 
predicted, went into the Rip Van Winkle state im- 
mediately after the duties of the morning and 
a luncheon were disposed of. All three of the 
boys went off to try the sleighing, and left me 
alone — to sleep, as they supposed ; for I was curled 
up very comfortably on a lounge in one end of the 
dining-room, before the grate fire, with a soft pil- 
low under my head, and a gorgeous afghan over 
my feet, and as I was told to rest and I would cer- 
tainly feel better, I closed my eyes and tried to 
sleep. Then presently Aunt Martha stole ^.way, 
and the boys soon after, and I was left alone. I 
felt just weak and lonely enough to lie there, shed- 
ding the tears I had been fighting back all the 
morning, until from very weariness I fell asleep. 

I must have slept some time, for when I woke 
the room was quite full of pleasant twilight, and 
the fire in the grate was throwing out bright gleams, 
and showed me the old cat very comfortably lo- 
cated on my feet, purring intense satisfaction. I 
lay there quietly listening to her sleepy voice, and 
to the ticking of the clock, and then I became 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 151 


vaguely conscious I had other company than Miss 
Puss and the monotonous old clock. I felt, rather 
than saw, that somebody was sitting near me, and 
I stretched out my hand, knowing there was but 
one who would clasp it. “ Oh, Paul,” I said, “ I 
am so glad you are come.” 

A fat, chubby little hand was instantly thrust 
into mine, and a most plaintive voice cried, “ I am 
Jack, please, and not Paul. I have been sitting by 
you ever since you went to sleep, and you threw 
your arms and talked so much that I was afraid 
you were sick, and I sat here to cover you up.” 

I rubbed my eyes, and looked around me in 
the greatest state of amazement and disappoint- 
ment. Yea, verily, it was little Jack, quite lost in 
the depths of an arm-chair, and patiently bent 
upon developing his powers as nurse. 

“ It was very kind of you, Jack, to care for 
me so well ; but why didn’t you go with the 
boys ? ” 

“ Well, they thought Frank Gay would be glad 
of my seat.” 

“ That was very unkind of them, Jack,” I said, 
severely. 

“ No, not unkind, for I didn’t care much to go; 
my head aches, too.” 


152 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

“ Does your head ache ? ” I asked carelessly ; 
“ mine has all day.” 

“ Oh, yes, and my throat is sore, too. I don’t 
feel well,” he whispered. 

“We both took cold, I guess, Jack, because we 
played so much and got so very warm ; you see it 
won’t do for us to be so very gay in a long time 
again.” 

“ I wish I was home with grandma,” he said, 
“ if it wasn’t so far to go.” 

“ Why, you poor little fellow,” taking his hand 
in mine, “ don’t get homesick now. You know 
you are to go home for the long vacation.” 

“ I wish I could go home to-morrow,” he said. 
“ I do want to go to-morrow, Aggie.” 

“ Well, put your head here on half my pillow, 
and we’ll talk about it when Ned comes home. 
They’ll be here very soon, now.” 

And laying his head by mine, we clasped hands 
and grew quite confidential in the fast increasing 
darkness, and I flattered myself I had talked him 
into feeling much better, when the whole family, 
aunt, boys, and dogs, came trooping in, and a 
warm, cosy-spread table soon beguiled Jack and 
me into forgetting our woes. But I noticed the 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 153 


poor boy ate very little, and seemed to swallow 
with much difficulty. 

“ I don’t think you are well, Jack,” Aunt Martha 
said, observing the same thing, and speaking very 
kindly. “You have eaten a mere nothing, my 
dear, and 1 am sure you are not feeling quite 
right.” 

Ned laughed gayly, and declared Christmas festi- 
vals were too much for Jack. “ Next time he 
would have to stay at home.” 

“ I wish I were home,” sighed little Jack to me, 
never dreaming home and a father’s ^care were so 
near; never dreaming it was only a few days’ 
journey for his tender, untried feet, and before the 
new year dawned he would have found and safely 
reached it. We did not any of us feel the chill ot 
apprehension. We were all somewhat tired and 
worn, and when Ned proposed his brother’s going 
up to bed at once, he went ; but, as he left the 
room, he stopped by the lounge where I had 
thrown myself again. 

“Good-night, Aggie,” he said, timidly. “I 
should like to kiss you good-night if you would 
not mind.” 

And when I put my arms around him, and drew 


154 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

him down to me, his lips and cheeks were like 
coals of fire. 

“ Jack is really sick,” I said. “ Auntie, do come 
here right away.” 

Thoroughly alarmed, she came and took both 
his hands in hers, asking how long he had felt 
badly, and if his head ached. 

“ He is always having headaches,” said Ned. 
“ It’s nothing, Miss Lee. I’ll take him up to bed; 
you need not mind.” 

But Aunt Martha did not rest satisfied with 
Ned’s assurance. She went up as soon as she 
thought him gone to bed, and stayed a long time. 
When she came down, her face was quite grave 
and serious. 

“ Jack is a sick boy, I am afraid,” she said. “ I 
shall send Phil for the doctor at once, and I shall 
go up and sit with him until he comes. Do you 
want anything, Agatha ? ” 

“ Oh, no, auntie. Perhaps Paul will be in 
soon,” 

“Yes, dear,” she said, absently, and then “poor 
little Jack,” as she went up-stairs again. 

By and by Paul did come. He came in just 
as he used at the Lee, throwing his hat and gloves 
upon the table, and bringing with him such a 


A GA THA LEE S INHERITANCE. 155 


sense of brightness and happiness that I felt more 
than half well already. 

“ I have been thinking of you all day,” he said, 
“and fearing you would be ill. Where is Miss 
Lee ? ” 

And when I told him of Jack, his face grew 
quite grave. “ Poor little fellow,” he said, and, as 
I attempted to rise, he came over to my sofa, and 
would play physician to me, “ or I would be like 
little Jack,” he said, as he drew up the big arm- 
chair, and sat down by me, taking my hand in his. 

“ Oh, Paul,” I exclaimed, “ how can you be 
good to me, when I was so unkind to you last 
night? I didn’t need your reproof to make me 
thoroughly wretched all the rest of the evening, 
and to-day too.” 

“ I can forget,” he answered, “ because I know 
my little friend did not intend to wound me ; 
don’t speak of it again.” 

“ But I must. Your beautiful gift has made it 
all the more hard for me. When I went in the 
parlor and saw it for the first time this morning, 
your eyes looked nothing but reproach to me.” 

“ And I meant they should be all love,” he re- 
plied, gayly. “You like it then ? ” 

“ Oh, so very, very much ! I shall keep it in 


156 


AG A THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


my own room, Paul, on my table, where it will be 
looking reproofs at me continually, and it may 
keep me a little better. I know I would be better 
if I had you all the time.” 

“ That is just the thing I want to talk to you 
about to-night. I want you to put aside entirely 
this idea of pleasing me. There is One ” — and 
his voice was quite tender and grave — “ whom it 
is far better to please. Try it. Sometimes in 
writing to me, you say, when you are tempted to 
do wrong or be neglectful of your duties, you have 
only to think ‘ for Paul’s sake,’ and it instantly be- 
comes easy. Now try another plan. Say 1 for 
Jesus’ sake.’ I am sure it would make you hap- 
pier.” 

I blushed, feeling his reproof deeply, but say- 
ing not a word. 

“ I love you well,” he went on in his kind, 
gentle way, “ but I love this dear Elder Brother so 
much more, and His arm is so strong to lean 
upon, that I long to have you feel the same sup- 
port.” 

“ I have asked,” I said ; “ I have asked so 
many times, but I have received no answer. I 
have knocked again and again, but the door is 
always closed to me.” 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 157 


“ There is something wrong with you, then, my 
child; the promise is' clear if you do but faith- 
fully, earnestly ask, and in the right spirit. Do 
not be satisfied with one asking — earnest, importu- 
nate prayer is the kind we are directed to use. 
Look upon your Saviour as your best and nearest 
friend ; talk to Him as if He were your brother 
indeed ; tell Him all your heart ; tell Him all your 
little shortcomings and trivial wants, and you will 
find in such sweet communion with Him at last 
the rest and peace for which you are longing.” 

I hid my face in my hands, never looking up at 
him. 

“ It troubles me,” he said, “ that I must go 
away and leave you so soon. There are so many 
things when we are together that I can say, and 
when we are separated that I can not write. And 
I do long so very much to have you find this 
Hand, which, all unconsciously, has been leading 
you for many years. When you can clasp it close, 
how the darkness and shadows will flee away from 
your soul. How bright and clear the promises 
will shine for you, and of how little worth this 
world, its pleasures and riches, will seem. But 
you can only find it through love — the love of 
Christ, the Crucified.” 


158 AG A TH A L EE S IN HER I TA NCE. ! 

“ But you do help me,” I whispered. 

“ I long to help you so much. I long to have 
you put on the pilgrim’s garb, and set out for the 
Celestial City, more than I can tell you. But there 
is but one way. He that climbeth up any other, 

‘ the same is a thief and a robber.’ ” 

“ It seems easy,” I said, “ when you are here to 
tell me, but when you are gone and I begin, I find 
myself wondering if you would smile approval, 
and then, you know, Paul, how it ends.” 

“ But it can not end in any other way than right 
if you do but try my plan. Try it faithfully, with 
your heart in it, and let me know how you suc- 
ceed.” 

“ I will try,” I promised. 

“You are not the only one who is fighting 
Apollyon,” he said, soberly. “ I am going through 
a warfare with him too.” 

“You?” I cried in surprise. “Oh, Paul! What 
have you to fight against ? ” 

He sat still a long time, looking into the fire and 
lost in thought. 

“You know what the dream of my life has 
been ? ” he asked. 

“Yes, and at first how unreconciled I was to it. 
It seemed so horrible to me then, to have you bury 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 159 


yourself in that way ; but I do not feel so any 
longer. I am glad, dear Paul, you are to preach 
this Christ crucified. I shall love to listen to 
you.” 

“ It is not that,” he said softly, with his eyes 
full of kindly light. “ It is not that at all. You 
will probably never hear me preach, as you say, 
except the sermons — and very dry, dusty ones 
they are too — which I sometimes am obliged to 
give one solitary little hearer. I want to put that 
all away, Aggie. I am afraid there was some pride 
in that longing. Now I want to give it up.” 

“ To give it up ! ” I echoed, astonished. “ You 
can not mean it ! You, who since you were old 
enough to choose, have had but one thought and 
aim in life ! And your mother, and her pride of 
you in your choice ! You are crazy, Paul ! ” 

“ You do not understand me,” he said, “ and I 
did not understand myself for a long time. Now 
I know myself. I have fought out the battle with 
pride. Now I can say, and from my heart, I want 
to go away to preach this Christ, and the story of 
the Cross indeed ; but not to those who have heard 
it all their lives ; not for money and the applause of 
the world, and the position I might yet reach ; 
but to tell it in heathen lands, as God has bidden 


160 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


us tell it — to every creature; to hold the cross be- 
fore the darkened vision of those who, though 
they are blind, yet may see. Ah ! little Agatha, 
to be a laborer indeed in the vineyard of the 
Lord.” 

“ Paul ! Paul ! ” stopping him in dismay, “ you 
will never leave home and friends, and your 
mother, Paul? It will break her heart.” 

“ ‘ Whoso loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me,’ ” he said slowly, looking, not 
into my eyes, but past and t>eyond them, as if the 
light that he had striven all his life to reach were 
still beckoning him on. 

“And you can serve your Master here,” I went 
on, without noticing his words. “ There is a field, 
wide and large, at home.” 

“And so many laborers in the vineyard,” he 
answered, “ and there so few. No, Agatha, I have 
had a hard fight, but I see my way now. Under all 
my pride and weakness, and love of ease, the path 
over the seas always shone plain and straight to view. 
I would have shut my eyes to it, but I could not. I 
would have dulled my ears to the call, but I still 
heard the same command : ‘ Go preach the Gos- 
pel ! ’ and now I can not longer refuse. To hear 
is for me to obey.” 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 161 

“ I can not let you go ! ” I cried desperately. 
“ Paul, Paul, I can never let you go.” 

“ It may be years,” he said dreamily, brushing 
away my tears, “ it may be many years before I 
can go, but ail the same, I mean one day to make 
the hope reality. There is only one thing which 
binds me to home now, and that is my mother. 
When that tie is broken, then, Aggie, I shall take 
up the cross, for it has been a cross, and is some- 
times now, but I shall carry it. It is a very small 
thing to do for His dear sake.” 

“ It is not now,” I said with a sigh of relief, 
putting the evil day away. He was not going 
now. That, to a child of my years, was enough. 
The present was mine, for my “ sure possessing,” 
and I was quite content. 

“ Let us leave the time to God,” he said sol- 
emnly ; “ let us feel that we are in His hand.” 

“ It is a happy thought if one could always feel 
it so.” 

“And why may we not ? If we look up to God 
as our Father, and Christ as our Saviour, every- 
thing else seems small and of little worth in com- 
parison. Promise me, Aggie, you will help and 
encourage me ? ” 

“ How can I ? ” I asked. “ How can I help 

11 


162 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


you, when the one wish of my heart is that you 
may never go? And why did you never tell me 
all this before ? ” 

“ I had to fight the battle out, and understand 
myself first. It seems hard to leave this beauti- 
ful home and friends behind. Now it seems to 
me that I have no home or friends but the Home 
I am striving to reach in the Eternal City, and the 
Friend who is nearer and dearer than all others be- 
side. Do you ever think thus of your home, Aggie ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” I said faintly. 

“Try and think of it so. Only feel that it is a 
short time we have to wait. It matters but little 
what place we have here, it can never be a home. 
It can only last until death steps in and takes us 
from it all. What matter how we live, or where ? 
He had not where to lay His head, and I — why 
should I linger here idly, and in luxury, when I 
remember the souls waiting for Christ? ” 

“Do not talk so, dear Paul,” I said. “ I do not 
know you to-night.” 

“ No, I have never shown you all my heart be- 
fore ; but I could not help it to-night. I tell you 
of it because I feel so clearly I may not be al- 
ways near you as now, and we must help and en- 
courage each other while we may. Besides, I 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 163 

want you to accustom yourself to the thought, and 
then you can not fail to see the path of duty that 
spreads before me very plainly.” 

I shook my head. 

“You will find enough heathen at home, Paul. 
You have not to go to Zulu for them. Begin your 
work on me.” 

“ I have,” he said gravely. “ I have been a long 
time striving, very feebly, to plant good seed — 
seed that perhaps, when I am gone, may spring 
up and bear good fruit.” 

I could not keep back my tears at this. 

“Why do you cry so, Aggie? ” he said softly, 
and drawing me closer to him. 

“ I can not help it. It is because I love you, I 
suppose, and want you with me, and — what shall 
I do without you ? ” 

“ Say as I do, it is a little while on earth to wait, 
and eternity is long , so very long ! Let us never be 
separated there, little one. That is the only part- 
ing we need dread — the final parting, through all 
eternity, of friends, when we at the last shall stand 
before the Judge. And with that thought ever in 
our hearts, let us help each other put the world 
away, and take only Christ. When I think of 
that it makes me very happy/’ 


164 A GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE . 


And though his eyes were misty with tears as 
my own were, I could no longer try to dissuade 
him. 

After that our conversation went on to other 
things, and Paul did not talk of himself much, but 
his Master more, and I lay back on my pillow, 
quiet and content now that he was back in his old 
place as teacher, and was not going away for many 
days. How could I be other than content when I 
had him for guide and friend ? 

And while we were talking, the doctor came in 
and went directly to Jack’s room, and he stayed 
so long that Paul went away, and I had gone to 
bed when I heard his footsteps in the hall ; and I 
sat up listening to the sound of the carriage wheels 
crunching the frozen ground under its light cover- 
ing of snow, until it died away in the distance, and 
I sat there listening, with a vague foreboding at my 
heart, until Jane came in to say that the doctor 
was coming again about midnight, and that Jack 
was very ill. 

Poor little boy. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Before morning little Jack was moaning and 
tossing with fever, and before the day was ended 
we knew he would not live. The doctor, from the 
very first, gave no hope of his recovery. 

We heard with terror that it was scarlet fever, 
and that none of us would be permitted to enter 
the sick-room, which was hard for poor Ned. He 
was utterly overcome when he found his brother 
was really ill ; but when he heard the doctors de- 
cision, very carefully and kindly told, but dis- 
tinct and certain, he seemed beside himself with 
remorse and grief. He found out then, poor boy, 
that there was nothing but love in his heart for 
this brother who was so soon to leave him. My 
heart ached for Ned. 

It had been so natural and easy to bully little 
Jack and make a fag of him, but he had not 
meant to be unkind, he said, laying his head in 
my lap, and sobbing out all his terror and grief 

nfiT) 


166 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

there, in the deserted dining-room, which looked 
so cold and cheerless now when stripped of the 
gay Christmas tree and hangings of green. 

We scarcely saw Aunt Martha, she was so con- 
stant in her attention to the poor little sufferer, but 
Paul was with us a great deal of the time. He 
came in at any hour of the day or night, just as he 
used when we were at the Lee, and he also went 
up to share Aunt Martha’s watch, or speak a few 
comforting words at times. How eagerly we 
waited for his return to us, and how we gathered 
around the fire, speaking in subdued whispers, 
with a tremulous fear of the darkness and quiet 
which hung about the house ; and how we started 
at every shadow and slight sound. And then 

when Paul came down, how we searched his face, 
« .... 7 
and could- tell intuitively, without need of words, 

how the sick child was. And when the third day 
began to dawn, it became evident to all that for lit- 
tle Jack another and a better dawn was brighten- 
ing. ' Jane told us this as we three sat over the 
dining-room fire that third night of his illness. 
We could not any of us sleep, and so gathered to- 
gether to share our anxious watch. We did not 
dare go to our own rooms past the door of the 
chamber where Jack lay, and whose restless moan- 


A GA THA LEE'S IN’ HER l TA NCE. 167 


ings and cries we could plainly hear, but we sat 
there until far into the night, holding one another’s 
hands, and speaking very kindly and tenderly ; 
and Jane came backward and forward, opening 
the doors softly, and telling us in whispers the 
changes that came and went in the sick-room. We 
were all very kind to each other ; even Phil low- 
ered his voice and stepped so noiselessly that no 
one would have imagined that it was rough, merry 
Phil so subdued into quiet and sympathy. 

Paul had telegraphed to the boy’s grandparents, 
their nearest relations ; but they lived far south, 
and no answer to his message had been received. 
Ned had been talking to him about it, and was 
quietly crying, when the doctor came in that night 
and stayed a long time. When he came down his 
face was grave as he took Paul aside, and they 
held a low conversation together ; then without 
a word to us, the doctor drove away, and Paul 
went up-stairs. Phil got up, walking to and fro, 
restlessly and anxiously, and Ned followed Paul, 
while I was left alone before the fire, with my 
head full of dull, heavy pain, and the blood 
bounding strangely hard and hot in my swollen 
veins. 

I had not been well since the party, but no one 


16S AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 

noticed or thought of me; no one but Paul, and 
he had attributed it to my sleepless nights and anx- 
iety, and had begged me to go to my own room and 
rest, but I could not, so Jane stayed by me through 
the nights in the dining-room, and made me a nice 
little bed of the afghan and sofa-pillows, and was 
kind and gentle to me as if she had been my 
mother. Poor Jane had forgotten all my misde- 
meanors as a child, and the gift of the maroon 
dress was the seal set to our friendship in the 
future. 

I sat there long before the fire, watching the 
flickering flame, and thinking, thinking over all 
that Paul had said to me of death and heaven, 
and the great hereafter. And then my thoughts 
went farther back to the time when I first saw him 
on the sea-shore; of my own fright, and his jesting 
words ; and afterward how I came, day by day, to 
know him so well ; our long talks on the beach, on 
the deck of the Scud, in the sober shade of the 
wood, with the far-away murmur of the surf filling 
our ears ; of his love and care of me ; and how 
he had tried to persuade me into choosing the 
Friend who was nearer and dearer than any earthly 
friend. It all came back to me, rolling over my 
heart like a flood ; all those precious promises of 


A GA TIT A L RE S I NITER I TA .VCE. 169 

strength and deliverance to those who trusted in 
Him. 

But I had neglected the teachings, forgotten the 
counsel, rejected the promises. It was a hard, 
bitter retrospect to me, and I sat there so lost in 
thought that I did not know when Phil left the 
room, and I was alone; and then I started up in fright 
and opened the door into the hall, listening for 
some sound from ihe sick-room. It was very 
quiet, save for a low sound of weeping, and I 
went cautiously up the stairs, and found Ned 
kneeling by Jack’s door. I put my arm around 
him, and we crouched there together listening. 
Oh, how still it was ! Only four days before, the 
house was full of riotous mirth and laughter, and 
now it was still as if it were a grave. So fearfully 
still that we only heard our own hearts beating, 
and our quick-drawn breaths. My own head, as 
I leaned it against Ned’s, was wild and giddy 
with pain, but I dared not speak of it. If Jack 
should die, as the doctor said he would, why might 
not I? I might even have the same fever about 
me now. It was very strange my head should ache 
so, and my hands and face feel so hot and dry ; 
and Paul’s words of the summer before flashed 
through my mind, “Children are dying around us 


170 AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 

ever}'- day, and why may not you ? ” and my 
wicked answer, “ I was never in better health in 
my life.’' Ah, I could not say that now, with a 
choking sense of fear lest any one should think 
me really ill ; and then we heard a smothered 
sound within the room, and Ned started up and 
we both listened. It was only a feeble voice, 
hoarse with fever, calling for water, and moaning 
piteously, and not at all like little Jack’s ; and then 
he wanted “ brother Ned,” and some one tried to 
soothe and still him. Ned’s whole frame shook 
with suppressed sobs, but when he heard his name 
he could bear it no longer. 

“ I must go, Aggie,” he said. “ They have for- 
bidden me to come in, but I can not hear him 
calling for me and not answer.” And he put out 
his hand gently, and pushed open the door. Then, 
as my eyes fell on the bed, I shrunk back in the 
shadow where they could not see me, but where I 
could plainly see all within. I had not looked 
upon his face since he had said, “ I should like to 
kiss you good-night, Aggie, if you would not mind.” 
Poor little Jack! I remembered how hot and 
burning his lips had felt as they touched mine. 
Had he kissed me that night unto death? I 
looked in, struck with this dread fear, and saw the 


AGATHA LET'S INHERITANCE. 171 

little white face, which I hardly knew as Jack’s, 
lying on Aunt Martha’s breast, as she sat on the 
bed with both arms around him, holding him up. 
And Paul, too, was leaning over him, and I saw 
Ned go in and bend down, kissing forehead and 
lips, and the two little hands placed in his ; and 
then, without a word, he dropped on his knees by 
the bed, burying his face in the clothes, yet still 
holding his brother’s hands. 

And Jack looked up at Aunt Martha with eyes 
bright and luminous, and said faintly, “Will he 
tell me some more? Will he tell it to Ned, 
too ? ” 

She bent over him, parting the clustering, 
tangled curls from his forehead, and kissing him, 
said, “ Yes, if he was not tired.” 

I leaned forward, listening eagerly. Paul had 
been speaking, and he began again, but in a voice 
so low I could barely hear what he was saying. 
The room was very still. Very faint and far away, 
the noises of the street and city stole up into the 
room. The day was near breaking, and the milk- 
men’s carts were rattling over the stones, but faint 
and indistinct these sounds were, and muffled and 
far away as in a dream. 

“ Tell me some more,” said Jack, still looking 


172 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

into Paul’s face. “ Tell me if I too may reach the 
beautiful city.” 

“You surely may,” answered Paul, softly. “ His 
arms are open to take in all who pray to Him and 
who love Him.” 

“ I have loved Him all my life ; I can not love 
Him any more now I am going to Him ; only — ” 
and the tired eyes roved around longingly — “ I 
want Ned to come too.” 

Ned’s face was buried in the bedclothes, but he 
sobbed out something which Jack’s listening ear 
caught eagerly. He reached out his hands to draw 
Ned closer to him, and the little face grew almost 
beautiful with a strange, unearthly light, which, 
now that heaven was claiming it, broke over and 
made it radiant. 

“ Oh, Ned, kiss me once more; ” speaking with 
the greatest difficulty. “ Tell me you will forget 
if I have been cross sometimes.” 

“It is I who have been unkind all my life,” 
cried Ned. “You will forgive me, darling ? I did 
not mean it ; you must know I never meant it, and 
yet,” breaking down into inarticulate sobbing, “ I 
never did treat you right.” 

A smile lit up the face of the dying boy. 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 173 

“■But I knew when you hugged me up at night, 
Neddy, that you loved me all the same. It was 
so nice to lie in your arms. You’ll miss me there, 
Neddy. Take me in your arms now — hold me so 
just once more before I say good-bye.” 

Aunt Martha lifted Jack’s head very tenderly 
from her shoulder, and let Ned slip into her place. 
Long the two brothers clasped each other — long 
and close — while Jack, with the same far-away 
look and heavenly smile, was murmuring incoher- 
ently of the story of the cross which Paul had 
been telling him, and the beautiful city toward 
which his feet were straying. 

“ I shall never give up watching until you come, 
Neddy ; I shall be so glad to feel your arms about 
my neck ; hold me close — so.” 

His head dropped heavily on Ned’s shoulder, 
and the eyes grew heavy and dull. I saw Paul 
raise his hand to Aunt Martha, and then they 
both stood quietly looking down upon the still 
face, while I held my breath and stood looking 
too, as if I were fastened to the spot. Not a word 
was spoken. He breathed very hard, in quick, 
short gasps, and over his face a strange gray 
shadow was creeping. I watched the eyes grow 


174 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


heavier and duller. I saw Aunt Martha gently 
take the little boy from Ned’s embrace, and lay 
the head tenderly back upon the pillow. 

“Jack,” cried Ned, with a wild, despairing cry ; 
“Jack, darling, don’t go and leave me; come 
back to me; oh, come back to me for a little 
while ! ” 

He bent over him, kissing him with untold agony 
in his face, but little Jack no longer heal'd. The 
heavy eyes grew fixed, then still ; there were three 
pitiful, faint sighs, as if the frail spirit loved to 
linger there; then Jack was not with us any 
longer. 

Aunt Martha closed the eyes, now staring wide 
and blankly; kissed him again and again, then 
turned to Ned. I 'could not stay any longer. I 
crept noiselessly down the carpeted stairs, with a 
sense of fright and horror in my heart which I 
could not conquer. I went straight down into the 
dining-room, where I could be alone. The fire 
had been neglected, and was going out ; the room 
was quite cheerless and cold, but I sat down be- 
fore the smouldering ashes, not feeling, it at all, for 
in my veins so bright and fierce a fire was leaping. 
I felt my pulse and tried to count, but could not, 
my brain was so wild and giddy. Then I won- 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 175 


dered if I too were not very ill, and I fell into a 
long fit of musing over the little one who had 
gone. I had never seen any one die before. A 
week ago I had not known. this little boy — now I 
wept and mourned for him as for a brother. But 
it was not hard to die that way, I thought. It was 
perfect and easy and sweet, just to go up to the 
Lord, as did little Jack. If I put out my hand 
and placed it in His, He would not turn away. He 
would take me, too, in the all-embracing arms, and 
lift me up just as tenderly. Oh, how fair this 
Paradise of God looked to me when Paul had 
painted the gates wide open to let every sin-freed 
soul pass in ; and how I had wandered, how far I 
had wandered, and how little I had kept the 
Cross in view. How utterly I had failed in it all. 
Was it of any use trying? Was it of any, any 
use ? 

I sat there alone so long in the hush of the 
solemn night, and with a brain full of such new, 
wild, horrible thoughts, that when Aunt Martha 
came in, the very quiet opening of the door caused 
me to start up and utter a cry of terror. She 
came directly over to me, taking my hand in hers. 

“ I have come to tell you,” she said, “ poor little 
Jack is at rest." 


176 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


And when I looked up, her eyes were wet with 
tears. 

“ I saw him die,” I said hurriedly. “ I stood 
by the door. Oh, aunt, I am so afraid.” 

“Afraid ? ” she asked. “Afraid of what, my 
poor child ?” looking in my face earnestly, and 
touching my cheek with her hand. “Aggie, are 
you ill too ? Tell me, what is it ? Why are you 
afraid ? ” 

“ I shall die,” I said, bursting into an agony ot 
weeping. “ I shall die, auntie, but not like little 
Jack. I am too wicked. I dare not die now.” 

“ My dear Agatha ; my poor, dear child.” 

She put both arms around me tenderly, and the 
long, close pressure said as plainly as words could 
how full her heart was of love and thought of me. 
She held my head upon her shoulder just as she 
had held Jack’s a few hours before. 

“ I am afraid I have forgotten other duties,” she 
said, “ in my care of this poor little stranger. My 
child, you are really ill, and I must put you to bed 
directly.” 

“ I dare not,” clinging to her. “ I dare not lie 
there all alone.” 

“ Then I will stay with you. But, Agatha, why 
do y6u feel so? Jack went out into the great, 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 177 

dim future without a thought of fear. He knew 
he was dying, but he did not dread the darkness 
of the grave. My child, it is a pleasant, beautiful 
thing to have death come to us when our souls 
are ready and waiting for the summons, as was the 
soul of this little boy.” 

She looked earnestly at me with almost a smile 
on her face, as if she had not just come away from 
this scene of death which had affected me so dif- 
ferently. 

“ It was beautiful and sweet,” she said, “ to be 
permitted to witness such a sight — a little ran- 
somed soul starting out joyfully to meet its Sav- 
iour ; a freed spirit going down into the dark val- 
ley, not feeling the darkness, and only keeping 
the light beyond in view.” 

Oh, why should I fear? Why should I tremble 
and turn away in affright when the same Hand was 
ever extended, the same Light shining through all 
the darkness? 

And just then Paul came in with Ned, who had 
been weeping bitterly, but to whom he must have 
been saying comforting things, for there was a 
look of quiet endurance on his face which I had 
not expected to see. Paul walked up and down 
the room, and Ned went over to my old place, the 
12 


178 AG A THA LEE'S INHERIT A NCE. 


sofa, covering his eyes with his hands. Day was 
just breaking, and the cold, wan light was creeping 
into the room where we four were gathered so 
silently, and with such strange awe and sorrow in 
our hearts. Paul was the first to break the silence, 
as he paused in his walk to draw aside the curtain. 

“What a happy dawning for little Jack,” he 
said. “ What a long, long day, after the night ! ” 
speaking rather to himself than to us. 

Then he came over to Ned’s side, taking his 
hand in his. 

“ You would not wish him back,” he said gently, 
“ if you could see all the glory and beauty of this 
new day which has dawned for your brother in 
Paradise. Oh, if you only knew, like him, all the 
sweet meaning of the words which were such a 
stay and strength to his soul — ‘ A hope in Christ.’ 
One can hot grieve or be sad any more when one 
has such an anchor, sure and steadfast, to which 
he may always cling.” 

And then he said softly, “ Let us pray.” 

How still and solemn the room was, broken only 
by Ned’s sobs and the low words of prayer. I 
had heard it often before, carelessly enough it is 
true, but his words bore a new meaning to me as 
I listened in awe and grief, following Paul in my 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 179 

heart as he besought for us all that blessing which 
the well-beloved Son shall pronounce to those who 
love and fear Him. “ Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world.” 

When he had ended we were all quietly crying, 
and when he came and kissed me good-bye, I 
clung to him, sobbing brokenly : 

“ Will I ever be worthy to receive that blessing, 
Paul ? Oh, will I ever be worthy ? ” 

“ It is not our being worthy ,” he said. “ It is our 
being unworthy , and feeling it so. If you love 
Christ supremely, and desire Him above all else; 
if you know yourself to be a sinner in His sight, 
and feel deeply your own unworthiness, then you 
may indeed feel sure He will accept you, and that 
you are His child. And you do love Him now, 
don’t you, Aggie ? ” 

“ Sometimes,” I said. “ Sometimes I think I 
do above all else ; but I am afraid to-night, I am 
afraid to die and meet Him.” 

“ He will take away your fear. He will give 
you the same strength and peace which was given 
to this little boy who has left us. Only give Him 
all your heart. Remember the precious words, 
the gracious promises.” 


180 AG A THA LEE ’ 5 INHERI TANCE. 

He kept his arm about me, holding me closely 
to him for some time. 

“You will make yourself ill,” he whispered, “ if 
you are not that already,” putting his cold fingers 
on my forehead, which was hot and burning, and 
touching my pulse. “ Miss Martha,” calling her 
to him, “ here is more work for you. I am afraid 
Aggie will be ill.” 

“ I have neglected her too long, I know,” she 
answered. “ She must go to my room now, and I 
shall take care of her, and she will feel better in a 
few days, I trust. It has been a great shock to 
her, as to us all, and a sad ending of our pleasant 
Christmas. Poor little Agatha ! ” kissing my cheek. 

And then Paul carried me very tenderly into 
her own pretty room, and laid me upon the bed, 
saying kindly and gravely, “ Good-bye,” and prom- 
ising to come in again that morning. And aunt 
undressed me, and bathed 'my throbbing head 
with cool water, and talked to me soothingly and 
quietly, and finally read me to sleep with the beau- 
tiful hymns out of the book that Jack had given 
to her. It was pleasant and comforting to hear 
them, and I fell asleep with the words on my lips, 
and filling my heart with a strange new feeling of 
almost peace. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


When I awoke it was broad day. The sunlight 
lay all over the floor in a flood of brightness, and 
the little canary hanging in the window was stir- 
ring, and shaking his feathers, and trying a soft 
note or two, as if the sunshine were just as pleas- 
ant to him as to me. Except for the little bird 
the house was unnaturally still. I raised my head 
from the pillow, and, leaning on one elbow, looked 
around, wondering why I was there, and then 
suddenly I remembered the night before. Just 
over me little Jack lay dead, and I was here in 
Aunt Martha’s room. I remembered it all. I 
sat up in bed listening to Cherry, and watching the 
pleasant sunshine creep around and stream through 
the window, broader and fuller, and dance upon 
the floor. Auntie’s room was very cheerful with 
its one large window, just like that in the dining- 
room, with the gilded cage hanging in it, and some 
flowers in a bracket and on a stand, and a little soft 

( 181 ) 


182 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


coal fire dancing upon the hearth — yes, it was 
very cheerful here, but up-stairs it was dim and 
cold, and Jack lay there dead ! I shuddered at the 
thought, and all the warmth and brightness of that 
pleasant morning seemed suddenly to flee away, and 
leave me in the cold and dark, as he was lying. 
And then my head ached, and I thought if Paul 
would only come in and talk to me ; if he only 
would come ; he had promised me he would ; and 
I wondered what o’clock it could be, and tried to 
raise my head and look at the little timepiece on 
the mantel, and could not, for I was so giddy ; so 
I laid down again, with the old throbbing of the 
day before come back over my temples ; and 
when Aunt Martha came in a few minutes after, I 
was just fit to burst into tears again with the fear 
that I must be very ill. And the effort of sitting 
up had made my head ache worse than ever, and I 
was glad, and frightened too, when she said the 
doctor was coming in to see me — he was in the 
house even then. 

I did not leave this bed, or Aunt Martha’s sun- 
shiny little room, for nearly two weeks after this; 
for fever set in, and from stupid, apathetic suffer- 
ing, I passed for a time into utter unconsciousness. 
I must have been very ill, for I remember so little 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 183 

about it, and I saw so many strange sights, and 
wandered so far and wide, that I was exhausted 
and worn out in but trying to remember when and 
how it had all happened. Sometimes I woke to 
know Aunt Martha’s voice, to see her face bend- 
ing over me, to feel her cool hands in mine ; and 
then the darkness, like a great wave, would roll 
suddenly over me, and blot it all out. Those great 
waves — tumbling and tossing, white-capped and 
angry — how they flashed out of the great black 
inane floating around me ! — how they shrieked and 
moaned, and tossed before my eyes, and then 
swept down, quiet, dumb, glassy, motionless, until 
my brain grew wild and weary of the horrible 
calm. Oh ! I saw strange sights, and had many a 
wild dream, while I lay there hovering between 
life and death; and through it all I felt a great 
want, sleeping or waking, in delirium or in mo- 
ments of reason. 

I knew Paul was away from me. Not once did 
I feel the cool touch of the hand on mine which 
was such a check, such an encouragement to me. 
And this was strange, for when I was better, and 
able to talk, and knew every one again, Aunt 
Martha told me Paul had watched by my bedside 
almost all of the time until after New Year, and 


184 A GA THA LEES INHERITANCE. 

he was obliged to go back to the Seminary then. 
It was strange that I did not remember anything 
about it. Those two weeks were almost a perfect 
blank to me. I remembered nothing of the time 
when little Jack was taken away, or when Phil 
and Ned went back to school. And when I came 
to myself, and saw the same sunshine streaming in 
through the half-drawn curtains, and the flowers 
in the window, and the little fire crackling on the 
hearth, it seemed to me that but for an unusual 
sense of weakness, I had only slept an hour or two, 
and that Jack still lay in the cold room up-stairs, 
as he lay that first day Paul carried me into aunt’s 
room. But Cherry was gone, and when I asked 
Jane why he was taken away, she told me I had 
been very ill, and the bird’s singing sometimes dis- 
turbed me. , Poor little Cherry * I made Jane go 
and bring him in from the dining-room, and hang 
him in the sunlight again, and I watched him hop 
about from perch to perch, softly trilling and chirp- 
ing, and thought it was a very fine thing for even 
a little bird to have a home, and know it, and be 
glad to get back to it again. And then I would 
sleep very quietly through a great part of the day, 
waking to know that aunt or Jane was by me, or I 
would watch the fire, and dream after my old 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 185 


fashion, seeing so many curious and wonderful 
things in the leaping flame, and falling off to sleep, 
and dreaming other and more wonderful dreams. 
And then there came times when the nights were 
long and lonely, and I would wake and watch the 
glimmer of the taper on the dressing-table, feeling 
so weak and weary, but lying very quietly, think- 
ing with a throbbing brain, “ What if I were to 
die ” — what if I were to die, and my soul were 
lost forever? And then I tried to pray as Paul 
had taught me, and I always felt comforted after 
it. Very feeble and weak they were; but nearer 
and nearer, each day, by these prayers, I drew to 
the dear Lord, and clearer the light shone, and the 
darkness was slowly fleeing away. But it was 
weary work to struggle back to life, and sometimes 
I felt a great apathy concerning it. I had at first 
so dreaded to die ; but as the days went by, and I 
felt more plainly the clasp of the hand wfiich I 
knew was always stretched out to guide and save, 
I began to look upon it as not so hard a thing to 
leave the world, if only one could be sure of the 
life “hidden with Christ, in God.” And I thought 
of Jack no longer with shuddering fear. It was 
such a peaceful falling on sleep, how could I re- 
bel ? It seemed so easy and beautiful just to give 


186 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


oneself up to God as he did. Ah ! why might not 
I ? Thus I used to lie and think sometimes in the 
quiet watches of the night, until at last a deep 
sense of happiness and rest would fill my heart 
whenever I thought upon these things, and yet I 
could scarcely tell why I was happy — I only knew 
I was so. 

It seemed to me a long, long time before I 
threw off this state of quiet, happy convalescence, 
and began to walk feebly around Aunt Martha’s 
pleasant little bedroom, and play at being well 
again. And yet in all it was only four weeks. It 
seemed to me scarcely possible. It was very nice 
at first to feel rid of pain and fever, and aching 
limbs, and to lie quietly on the bed in a loose warm 
wrapper, and watch the sunshine creeping around, 
brightening up everything in the pretty little room. 
It was so good of Aunt Martha to give it up to 
me. She slept on a lounge, by my bedside, 
through the nights while I was so very ill, with 
only Jane to relieve her, after Paul had gone away. 
How kind and good everybody had been ; and 
then, Aunt Martha — I wondered sometimes how I 
could ever have been ungrateful enough to dislike 
and annoy her, as I knew I had done, many and 
many a time. She looked pale and worn, I noticed 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 187 

when I began to sit up, and I longed to be well 
that she might have the rest she so much needed. 
But I found it very hard work to get back into the 
old strength again, and I grew very weary finally 
of the cosy little chamber, and longed to be 
around the house, and in my own room once more. 

One day when auntie had bought a new book, 
and sat by my bedside a long time to read it to 
me, I could not help but say— seeing the kind eyes 
of Paul back of everything else, and filling me 
with a great longing to see him again ; I could not 
help but say — 

“ Aunt, I must see Paul. There are so many 
things I want to see him for ; can I ? ” 

“ Paul has gone back to the Seminary,” she an- 
swered. “ He could not come to you now, my 
child.” 

“ Not if I were dying, aunt ? He surely could 
come then.” 

“ But you are not dying, my dear ; you are get- 
ting well very fast now,” kindly patting my hand. 

“ If I only could see him for a moment,” I said. 
“ Oh, auntie, I need him so much now.” 

“Why do you want to see him so much? ” she 
asked with tender interest in her face. “Will no 
one else do as well ? ” 


188 A GA THA LEE'S INHERIT A NCE. 

I did not answer. I turned to the wall, and 
covering my face with my hands, I tried to sepa- 
rate myself from all other thoughts, and look into 
my heart. Could it be I was deceiving myself 
with a false hope ? It had become almost second 
nature to tell my every thought to this friend, who 
was dear as an own brother to me ; whose advice 
I asked for, and whose love I craved above all 
other in the world. Surely he, and only he, could 
tell me if I were on the right path. I needed Paul 
that day, oh, how much I needed him. I tried to 
look into my heart and see what it was that was 
filling it, but all was dimness and confusion ; and 
I lay there struggling with doubts and fears ; and 
the room was very still, and Aunt Martha went on 
reading very quietly to herself. And still I lay 
there, my face buried in the pillow, and all my 
soul going out into wild, dumb questioning, until 
suddenly the cloud began to lift and roll away, 
just as the mist, lying down closely in the valley, 
flees away when the sun bursts through. How 
they scatter, how they part, how they melt away ! 
My heart stood still for a moment, drinking in all 
the warmth and brightness of this sudden rift of 
sunshine — stood still, and then in that first thrill 
of conscious happiness, knew itself. 


A GA THA L EE S INHERITANCE. \ 89 


“ Do you think it is wrong to want to live, 
auntie ? ” I began, tremulously. 

“Wrong? No, my love. God means us to be 
happy. Our life is a gift from His hands. He 
only asks that we spend it in His service.” 

“ Some days I have felt almost as if I wanted to 
die,” I said in a low voice, “ if only I could die 
and feel as Jack did. It seems so easy to die that 
way.” 

“ It is easy,” taking my hand in hers — and never 
had her face looked more beautiful or placid, as 
she smiled down upon me with her eyes full of 
gathering tears ; “ so easy, my little child, if you 
only give yourself to God as he did, and lie con- 
tent in His arms, feeling always ‘ It is the 
Lord.’ ” 

“ But to-day I want to live, auntie,” I said, 
eagerly. “ I want to get well, and feel strong and 
full of health, as I used. Is it wrong ? ” 

“ No,” still smiling down at me, with misty eyes ; 
“ I want to see you well too. But you must not 
forget it is a second gift of life to you, from the 
same kind Father. You must not forget when 
you are well, all the love and tender compassion 
He has shown to you.” 

“ I hope,” I said slowly, with the light all the 


190 AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

time shining stronger and fuller, and the touch of 
happiness still thrilling my heart — “ I hope, some- 
times in fear and trembling, and I can not keep 
from feeling glad and happy when I think of the 
promise, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and. 
thou shall be saved'. Is simple belief all, auntie ? 
If that is #//, why have I not been happy before, 
for I have always believed in Him ? ” 

“ But if you believe in Him, then surely you 
must have loved Him, my child.. You could not 
have turned away from Him coldly all your life 
who had loved you from the beginning with an 
everlasting love.” 

“ I believe in Him now,” I said slowly, “ and I 
love Him now — I can not begin to tell you how 
much. I only know now that I never could have 
loved or believed in Him before.” 

And Aunt Martha said, “ Thank God ! thank 
God ! ” smiling through fast-falling tears, and 
gathering me to her heart in a long embrace. 

And so the last cloud was lifted and swept away 
from my soul, and I saw the Cross of Christ shin- 
ing for me so clearly, just as it had always shone 
for me, only I had shut my eyes willfully, and for 
so long a time, to the sight. 

After that day it seemed an easy matter to get 


A GA THA LEE ’ 5 INHERITANCE. 191 


well. Life was something worth striving for, now 
that heaven was so plain and clear to view. A life 
spent in His service. Ah ! how much there was 
to do ; and how short a time to do it in ! I had 
indeed work before me — work while is was called 
to-day. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Four years had gone by. Spring and summer, 
autumn and winter. How rapidly they came and 
vanished, and left us, as the seasons passed into 
years, an unbroken circle. When the warm, sum- 
mer days came, we all went down to the pleasant 
home which I had learned to love so very much, 
the old, quiet farm by the side of the sounding 
sea. Phil, too, was with us, now grown into a 
tall, manly youth, dear as ever to Aunt Martha’s 
heart, and with him sometimes came his friend 
Ned Carter, who, after Jack’s death, seemed to 
claim Phil, and look upon him almost in the light 
of a brother. We were all very happy at such 
times. And our good aunt, placid, smiling, and 
beaming all over with quiet pleasure, helped us in 
all our plans, and entered into our little pleasures 
just as she used when we were children, four years 
gone by. She still had her small, languid, lady-like 
employments, her embroideries and bead-work, 
(192) 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 193 

her quiet charities, her deportment (and sometimes 
ours), to busy herself with. And Jane, following 
closely in her steps, was still “ Miss Martha” on 
an humbler scale, still followed us wherever we 
went, to city or country. Jane had become a 
“permanency,” and a “ peculiar institution,” as 
Phil declared. Poor old Jane ! Time had not 
visited her as lightly as it had the rest of us. Jane 
was growing old. And then, too, Paul was seldom 
away from us ; and it seemed almost like that first 
happy summer when I went down to Hilton Lee, 
and wandered with him hand in hand, all over the 
dim old woods, sailing away along the shores, and 

44 Dropping down from the beautiful bay, 

Over the sea-slope vast and gray ! ” 

Four years ! and it seemed only as many months ! 
Now Paul had ended with Seminary, and I with 
school, and he was preparing to set out upon the 
battle of life in earnest. The winter before, his 
mother had died. He had taken her far south, 
thinking a warm, soft air would possibly lengthen 
her days ; but it was of no avail. He wrote me 
of her beautiful, peaceful death, so calm and sweet 
that it seemed to him only like sleep — the sleep 
He giveth to His beloved ; and then he had 
13 


194 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


spoken very solemnly of the great work which lay 
before him, and which for so many years had filled 
his heart — of his mother’s blessing upon it, and 
her dying wishes concerning it. He had written 
me every thought of his heart in the hour of his 
bereavement, with her dying counsel still sound- 
ing in his ears ; and he had asked for my “ God 
speed ” upon his mission. Oh ! it was very hard 
to give that. Many and many a letter passed be- 
tween us on this subject — mine full of objections, 
doubts, hindrances ; his strong, fixed, full of pur- 
pose, overcoming all the barriers which I built up 
before him, melting them away like mere nothings, 
until at length I could not ask him to stay. I 
could not throw my earthly love into the scale, 
and turn him from his course ; and long before he 
came down to the Lee, I had made up my mind 
that it was only right and just that he should 
spend the life and wealth God had given him, in 
His service. But how I should miss the steady 
counsel, the support of his strong faith. How my 
own little rushlight burned small and dim when I 
thought over all he was giving up, and how little I 
had done ; I -who for four years had professed 
the same love for the Christ we had both dedicated 
ourselves to serve. I thought of it tearfully, 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 195 


prayerfully, for the love of ease and luxury, still, 
alas ! was mine. I could and did give of my 
abundance to the cause of the Master, but Paul 
gave his all. His beautiful home, where he was 
born, and which I knew he loved as dearly as I 
did mine, was sold into the hands of strangers. 
Not a single thing had he kept. Even the little 
Scud ’ his boyish pride, and my delight, had been 
given up two years before. His life, instead of 
the happy life of indulgence he once lived, be- 
came simple, almost monkish in its rigorous self- 
denial. He was becoming poor for His sake who 
was once poor for ours ; and still, though . I loved 
the same Master, and tried to walk in His foot- 
steps, still I clung to all the dear comforts of my 
beautiful home. I reproached myself for it daily, 
and with many prayers, and in much perplexity, I 
resolved to give Paul, when he left us, a portion 
of my long-coveted inheritance, to help him in his 
great work over the sea. When he should come 
and see me for the last time, I would tell him all. 
And how I longed, and yet delayed giving to the 
cause to which he had dedicated his life. For the 
last time ! It seemed strange that I could say it 
and think of it so calmly ; and when the day came 
around and Phil drove to the depot to meet him, 


196 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

I felt it was almost heartless of me to care so little 
about his leaving us forever. And yet how much 
I did care. When he drove up to the gate, and I 
ran out to welcome him, how the years fled away ; 
and I seemed again a child, needing him, needing 
him so very much. I had not met him since his 
mother’s death, nearly eight months before. He 
had grown paler and thinner, I noted in the first 
glance; but his old, beautiful, loving smile was 
just the same, as taking my hands in his, he bent 
over me, giving me the greeting which I had 
claimed and received ever since our first summer 
together by the sea. 

“ Little Agatha ! ” he said, caressingly, turning 
my face up to his, and searching it closely as we 
lingered by the gate> “ the very same little Agatha ! 
Time deals more harshly with me than with you, 
little one. You look just the same nixie who read 
Rollin years ago on this old wall, and you are here 
at the gate where I left you last year — waiting for 
me all this time ? Was I long coming ? ” 

“ So long,” I answered, “ that it does indeed 
seem like last year since I began watching for you. 
I thought Phil would never come ; oh, how I have 
longed for you ! ” 

“ And it does me good to see you again,” his 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 197 

hand closing over mine. “ The days have been 
long since we parted.” 

“ And you have seen so much sorrow,” I said, 
“ dear Paul, in those eight weary months.” 

“Not sorrow, Agatha; it seems wrong to call it 
that when to my mother, death only came as a 
blessing and a release — the crowning joy of a 
worthily spent life. But I have felt alone since 
then. Somehow all the brightness and daylight 
have gone out of my life ; it is not darkness, dear 
love, it is only a shadow that has fallen over my 
heart — the quiet, sober twilight that comes to us 
all with the falling years. Don’t think I grieve, 
don’t think I am unhappy.” 

“ No,” I sighed half sadly, “ you can never be 
unhappy, Paul; but you must grow older and 
graver and wiser, I suppose ; ” and looking closely 
at him I saw the lines already, the shadow he had 
spoken of, hovering about his face. Somewhat 
paler and thinner he was, and in the blue, tender 
eyes a wistful, searching, almost weary look, had 
grown ; but the same Paul for all that. If the 
brow had an added shade of thoughtfulness, or 
the mouth a more compressed firmness, the sever- 
ing of that last and dearest tie which bound him 
to earth, would sufficiently account for that. I 


198 A GA THA LEE'S INHERIT A NCE. 

wanted to ask him so many questions ; I longed 
to have him tell me all his heart ; but although 
many questions rose to my lips, I asked him only 
one, “You are really going, Paul? You have not 
changed your mind ? ” 

He looked up suddenly, the old bright smile 
breaking over his face like summer sunshine. 

“ Turn back now ? Little one, life would be 
nothing to me now if I were not to give it up to 
God, wholly and entirely, and in just this way. 
Why, Agatha, I must leave Hilton Lee to-mor- 
row.” 

“To-morrow?” I faltered. “To-morrow? — 
and is this one only day all you can spare to home 
and to me ? ” 

“ It is not home now, not home any longer,’ 
turning away from the old house which showed its 
clustering chimneys and pointed roof plainly 
through the parted trees. “ I put that all away 
once. I can not bring it back now. I have one 
home, child — the Home where we shall all meet at 
the last, I trust. There is nothing clear or per- 
manent for me any longer but that.” 

We still stood at the gate. June roses clambered 
all about and hung their wealth of snowy fragrance 
around the trellis and over our heads. He reached 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 199 

out his hand and broke off a cluster of them, 
twining them in my hair as he used to do with the 
wild flowers and leaves of the wood, where we 
wandered together in the years that were gone. 

“ Child, how you have grown,” he said ; “ you 
are not the little nixie any longer that I thought 
you. Yes, you have changed too ; and I did not 
dream it; I did not dream it. But you are no 
longer a child.” 

“ No, I am almost up to your shoulder now, 
Paul, though you used to defy me ever to get 
there. I feel I am growing to be a woman, fast ; 
but when I look back upon the past four years, 
the years that I intended should be so purposeful 
and good, I am willing to confess I am more of a 
child than when I made those resolutions — so fu- 
tile, so aimless, so little of worth is there in any- 
thing which I have done. No, do not interrupt 
me. I know what you would say. Oh, Paul, must 
my life always be this failure ? ” 

“As all lives are, as all must be — and it is well. 
Outside of all these struggles, beyond all this 
failure, lies Heaven and perfection — the crown of 
life, the song of rejoicing, and none of it ever to 
pass away. We might love earth too well, and 
cling to it too fondly, if we had only successes and 


200 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


pleasures here. Our very failures perhaps may in 
the end prove our surest success, if, knowing and 
feeling them, we strive to conquer sin, and to over- 
come the snares which are laid for our soul, and 
into which we will surely be led if we do not carry 
with us continually the remembrance of that 
Friend above all friends, our Saviour, our Guide. 
This is the thought which will console you, Aggie, 
for the unfruitful years you have left behind. For 
He knoweth our frame, He remembereth we are 
but dust.” 

“Oh, Paul, there is so much I need to be 
directed in, and you are the only one to tell me.” 

“ The only one ? ” — meeting my eyes with a 
look of kindly scrutiny. And then we went in to 
Aunt Martha, and for that one evening, the last of 
Paul’s evenings among old friends and home, we 
were again the same unbroken circle of four, 
united in purpose and heavenly longing. And we 
sat together until far in the night, I clinging 
closely to his side, scarcely knowing if his presence 
made me happy or sorrowful, scarcely believing it 
real that the dream of his life was So near its ful- 
fillment. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Paul was going away that night ! This was the 
thought which came to me with the dawn, and 
rested in my heart all through the long summer 
day, yet it brought no pain or regret. Down deep 
in my heart lay a little tremulous touch of happi- 
ness which I dared not stop to analyze, and could 
not, even had I dared. I only thought what could 
I give? — what could I do ? Not for Paul, but for 
this Master whose will he was trying to make his 
own ; remembering how for so many weeks I had 
been turning my plans over in my heart; at first 
bitterly, not willingly, knowing I was selfish, and 
cold in my love ; and fighting the tempter when 
he whispered enticingly to me ; and finally tri- 
umphing — for I did triumph ! 

That night Paul would be going away, I said. 
He had asked me to meet him once more at the 
old place on the sands, and I tied on my hat as 
the sun was going down, and wandered along the 

( 201 ) 


202 a GA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


familiar foot-path while all the quiet landscape 
around lay asleep in the golden haze of a perfect- 
ending day. Down to the rocks I walked, gather- 
ing up sweet old remembrances with every step. I 
had come here a child, willful, passionate, neglect- 
ful of my duties. Here had I been guided and 
led to the foot of the Cross ; here had my hand 
been taught to clasp the rod and staff that had 
become my strength and stay ; safe through the 
shadows had I been directed out into the light. 
He was waiting on the sands for me. I saw him 
long before I reached the beach, where the sum- 
mer sea lay rocking gently and breaking in short, 
crisp waves at his feet, tossing up tangled weed 
and sea-shells, just as it used when as a child I sat 
on the great black rock with Paul. Only a few 
years, and yet it seemed as if all my life had been 
spent with him, so little had I begun truly to live 
until I had known him. Day by day, month after 
month, until I began to count them off as years — 
and now he was putting all these things away for- 
ever, and I could not make my heart sad at the 
thought, so perfect was the life toward which his 
steps were leading me. He sat upon the rock, 
waiting there for me, but he did not look up as I 
came softly forward and sat down by his side. The 


AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 203 


sun was losing itself in gorgeous clouds, and the 
rose-tinted temple which Paul and I had watched 
nearly five years before, from the deck of the little 
Scud \ was shining for us again, tower and turret, 
and banner flung wide, and the pearly gates just 
ajar, and all the golden glory shining through. 
But Paul did not see it this time, nor the glorious 
path shining over the seas, which he saw then — 
neither temple, nor sea, nor sky. His face was 
buried in his hands, and he did not look up until 
I spoke. 

“ What troubles you, Paul ? ” I asked softly. 

Then he turned and looked at me. Surely no 
trouble or doubt could linger in his heart, who 
bore so plainly upon his brow the sign of peace ? 
And in the eyes, far away, tender and thoughtful, 
I could plainly read that the world to which he 
had bidden farewell, could never charm or beguile 
him any more. 

He put out his arm and drew me to him. " Noth- 
ing troubles me now,” he said. “ There was only 
one cloud hanging heavy and dark, but under it 
all I can see the sun still shining. It is hard to go 
away from country and friends, and yet not hard 
either, to leave it all for love of the dear Lord, 
who is urging me on.” 


204 


AGA THA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 


“Paul,” I interrupted, “I want to give you 
something — something which I beg of you to take 
not only because I love you, but because I love 
this same Master, and have taken Him for my 
friend too. You will not refuse me ? ” 

“ No, I will not refuse you,” he answered, “ I 
will never refuse you anything asked in His dear 
name.” 

“When I was a little child,” I began in a low 
voice, “ I used to love to dream of the future, of 
the wealth which time and fate would bring to me. 
I knew I would be rich. I had heard it when I 
was in the nursery. I used at first to long for the 
money, that I might have more dolls than auntie 
gave me. When I grew older the desire for riches 
grew stronger as the objects which I coveted grew 
larger, until I began to think it a very grand and 
desirable thing that death should come and thus 
give me the inheritance I so much coveted. By 
and by the dream became reality, and, oh, Paul, 
you know, you can tell how weak, how full of pride 
and boastfulness it made me. How I gloried in 
my riches and reveled in anticipations of the 
luxury I should call mine. You taught me first, 
dear Paul, the empty worth of all these things, of 
how little value they were in the Saviour’s sight. 


AGATHA LEE' S INHERITANCE. 205 

You gave me my first longing to be good; you 
were my impulse, my thought, my only thought. 
You remember when I had been trying all winter 
to be good for ‘Paul’s sake,’ how you bade me 
change it for another, and after a time a dearer 
name ? ” 

He said “ yes/’ with eyes still far away, looking 
out toward the blue sky and sea melting into one, 
and against which I could just discern a tiny 
cloud of thin smoke floating seaward. I watched 
it, too. Would I sit here and watch the white 
sails come and go to-morrow? Would I watch 
and wait again for the Esperanza to come floating 
over the waves to little Agatha Lee? I choked 
back the sob that struggled up into my voice, and 
went on : 

“You have parted with everything that in the 
years that have gone have been ties to you, and 
now you must take part of this wealth I once so 
weakly coveted.” And then as he did not speak 
I went on more hurriedly, and with something of 
my old impetuosity : “ If I have one good or per- 
fect thought in my heart ; if I have given up car- 
ing for the world and its enticements ; if I long 
for heaven more day after day, and if I finally 
reach a home there at last, I must thank you for 


206 AGATHA LEE'S INHERITANCE. 

teaching me the way, Paul. It is you who led me 
first to the foot of the Cross, and now my inherit- 
ance is worthless in my sight unless I spend it in 
His service. You will take it, won’t you, Paul, to 
help you on in your great work over the sea ? ” 

“ I will take it,” he said, “ a gift from your 
hands, little one. We will give up our all, but it 
must be together. You and I must not part. Do 
you understand me ? Long ago you promised 
you would take the same path leading up to the 
wicket; see, it shines for us to-night just as it did 
then — straight over the seas — and the waves are 
singing the same old song ; stop, child, and listen ; 
‘ Come over and help us,’ they say to me ; why not 
to you ? ” 

I said nothing while his eyes rested on me. I 
only looked out at the far horizon, and the thin 
line of feathery smoke skimming' against the dead, 
dark blue, and was silent. He took my face in 
his hands, and held it up to him. 

“ I have given up all but this,” he said, “ and I 
can not put seas between it and me. Never to see 
your young face — the little face I have learned to 
study, and love so dearly in studying — never to 
take your hand in mine again, or hear your voice,” 
and his own was unsteady, “ and you have given 


AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 207 


me of your wealth, while I, oh, Agatha, I have 
nothing left to give you but myself.” 

I did not move. I sat looking at him with eyes 
that were misty, though I did not know it, with 
happy tears. Then I suddenly put out my arms 
with a cry in my heart which I could not stifle any 
longer. 

“ Now tell me,” he said, but I had no words to 
answer him. I could urge my cause impetuously 
and earnestly in bestowing my wealth, but this, the 
crowning happiness of my life, sealed my lips. 
My joy had made me dumb ! 

And so we are going away — Paul and I — going 
away together, and forever. Forever? Such a 
full, sad word, and yet it brings no sadness to me. 
It is only a little sorrow at parting ; a little pang, 
but before us ever the bliss of meeting again ; a 
little toil and struggling here, to be made up in 
the Hereafter by perfect joy and rest and peace. 
Paul says he has not an unfulfilled desire left him 
in life now, and have I ? I can not tell ; I do not 
know; I only feel that he will be near me just as 
of old — my guide, my counselor, his people to be 
my people, and his God to be my God — and so 
the days fall softly upon our great content. For 


208 AGATHA LEES INHERITANCE. 

life is short and eternity is long, and we go while 
it is called “ to-day ; ” while the Lord is calling for 
us to put in the sickle and glean, while the field is 
white unto the harvest. It is He who is helping 
us to go bravely, strong in His strength. And 
still the same light shines for us across the seas, 
and leads us on — on. God grant it may never 
flicker or fade, or that we forget to keep it in view ! 
God grant that His Spirit may go up with us, 
until finally we claim that which is far more per- 
fect and enduring than aught which earth can give 
— our true Inheritance at the last. 


THE END. 


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New England. i2mo, . . . . $1 75 

Stepping Heavenward. i2mo, . $i 75 

The Home at Greylock. i2mo, . 1 50 

Urban£ and his Friends. i2mo, . 1 50 

Aunt Jane’s Hero. 12010, . 1 50 

The Story Lizzie Told. i6mo, . 60 

Golden Hours. Hymns and Songs of 

the Christian life— (originally published under 

the title of Religious Poems). i6mo, . ^ ^5 

The Little Preacher. i6iho, cloth, 1 00 

Six Little Princesses. i6mo, . 75 

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 


For Girls from. 12 to 16 years of age. 

The Flower of the Family. i6mo, i 50 

For Children from io to 12 years of age. 

The Percys. i6mo, . . . . i 25 

For Children from io to 14 years of age. 

Only A Dandelion, and other Stories, i 25 
Nidworth and his Three Magic 

Wands. i6mo, . . . . . * 2 5 

For Children from 7 to 10 years of age. 

HENRY and Bessie, and what they did 

in the Country. i6mo, . . . . 1 OO 

Little Threads. i6mo, . . .100 


For Children from 4 to 8 years of age. 

Peterchen and Gretchen. i6mo, i oo 

For Children from 4 to 6 years of age. 

Susy’s Six Teachers. Large type, . 85 

Susy’s Six Birthdays. Large type, 85 
Susy’s Little Servants. Large type, 85 

Sent by mail, prepaid, upon remitting price to the Publishers, 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 

900 Broadway, New York. 


CHOICE READING 


CLOVERLY. A Story. By Mrs. M. R. Higham. 
12mo. Clotli, $1.25. 16mo. Paper, 

A bright, wholesome story of family life ill the country ; 
told wi f b more than ordinary skill, and bubbling over with 
sparkling conversations ai.d clever, witty sayings.— The 
Publishers' Weekly. 

PEMAQUID : A Story of Old Times in New 
England. By Mrs. E. Prentiss, author of 
“ Stepping Heavenward.” Six illustrations. 
12mo. Cloth, $1.75. Paper covers, 

The structure of the book is altogether unique, and has 
a charm of its own. It is not a continuous narrative, but 
the characters are made to introduce themselves and to 
portray the persons and incidents of the story — from their 
several points of view— in language and coloring peculiar 
to tliemselve?. — The Evangelist (N. Y.) 

The book has a field of its own. It will be read with 
pleasure by a large circle.— AT. Y. Observer. 

WHITE AS SNOW. By Edward Garrett, au- 
thor of “ Occupations of a Retired Life,” and 
Ruth Garrett. 12mo. Cloth, 

A cluster of half a dozen stories in as many chapters. 
The book is a very enjoyable one, and when we finished 
the last story, we would willingly have read a few more of 
the same sort.— Christian Union. 

FAITH AND PATIENCE ; or, The Harring- 
ton Girls. A Story by Sophy Wintlirop. 
18mo. Cloth, red edges, $1.00. lOmo. Paper, 

Faith and Patience are the names of tw’o very lovable 
characters whose virtues arc portrayed in this very simple, 
but fascinating story .—Evening Journal (Albany). 

As a whole, for a little book it excels. The tears would 
come, and so would the broad smile, and then the full, 
round laugh. Get Faith and Patience.— Providence Press. 

ANSGN D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 

900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST., NEW 
Sent by mail , post free, on receipt ofpnce. 


50 


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1 00 


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